LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, 



©few, - fepnrigft T)a, 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



SERMONS and LECTURES 




PHILADELPHIA 
1890 



The Library 
of Congress 



WASHINGTON 



Until vWtzt 

Ignatius F. Horstmann, S. T. D., 

Censor Librorum. 



t Patritius Joannes, 

A rchiepiscopus 
Philadelpli iensis* 



Copyright, 1890, by H. L. Kilner & Co. 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

The Epiphany of our Lord, 7 

The Blessed Sacrament, 30 

The Sacred Heart of Jesus, 45 

Perseverance in Grace, 62 

St. John the Evangelist, 81 

The Isle of Destiny, 96 

The Beauty of the Church, 145 

On Forgiving Injuries, .164 

The Sixth Nicene Canon and the Papacy, . . 182 



TO THE 

RIGHT REV. JOHN SHANLEY, D. D. 

" BISHOP OF JAMESTOWN, 
NORTH DAKOTA. 

My Dear Bishop: 

I was presuming a great deal on our ancient friendship 
when I requested you to permit the association of your 
name with these crude and juvenile effusions, concern- 
ing which I had been for long deliberating whether I 
ought to commit them to the warm embrace of Hephaestos 
or inflict them upon a fallen, sinful world. But when I 
finally decided upon the latter course, the very fact that the 
majority of them were conceived in our college days and, 
in spite of subsequent prunings and temperings still retain 
so much of their juvenile ardor, seemed to give them a 
quasi claim upon your charity. The first of them, espe- 
cially, may serve to remind you (as it lately did on the auspi- 
cious occasion of your elevation to the episcopate) of the 
happy years which we spent together in Propaganda under 
the patronage of the Magi. As regards the whole set I 
may say in the words of a friend with whom I consulted as 
to their fate: If I do not print them now, I shall very soon 
have reached the age when it will befit me to " put away the 
things of a child." 

Begging your episcopal blessing and wishing you a long 
and successful career, I am, 

Your faithful son in Christ, 

J. F. LOUGHLIN, 



5 



THE EPIPHANY OF OUR LORD. 



" The earth was void and empty, and darkness was upon 
the face of the deep ; and the Spirit of God moved over the 
w T aters. And God said : ' Be light made.' And light was 
made." — Gen. i. 2-3. 

" Arise, be enlightened, Jerusalem, for thy light is come ; 
and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For behold, 
darkness shall cover the earth and a mist the people ; but 
the Lord shall arise upon thee and His glory shall be seen 
upon thee. And the Gentiles shall walk in thy light and 
kings in the brightness of thy rising." — Is. lx. 1-3. 

How majestic and thrilling are the visions 
which are conjured up before us by these inspired 
word-paintings of Moses and Isaias ! We are not 
mere listeners, my brethren ; we are spectators. 
Carried out of our present surroundings, we seem 
to be standing, now by the side of the Father of 
Sacred History on the summit of Mount Sinai as 
he looks back into the chaos of the primeval 
world, and now with the Prince of the prophets 
on the hill of Sion peering into the future in 
anxious expectation of the dawning of the better 
light. Both Moses and Isaias sing the triumph 
of light and order over darkness and anarchy ; 
but Moses with the dignified repose of the histo- 
rian narrates a struggle long since decided, a vic- 
tory long since achieved ; whilst Isaias, moved to 
the inmost depths of his soul by the hideous 
gloom of idolatry and the chill, heavy mist of sin 
which cover the earth, pours forth his hymn of 
the coming triumph in a strain of impassioned 

7 



s 



THE EPIPHANY. 



enthusiasm. Moses speaks in sober terms of this 
material world and this natural light : Isaias in 
sublimer notes celebrates the world of spirits and 
the effulgence of supernatural grace. Moses un- 
folds the wonders of a physical world created ; 
Isaias the greater wonders of a spiritual world 
redeemed. But if we approach nearer and exam- 
ine more closely these two magnificent produc- 
tions of heavenly art, we shall forthwith discover 
so close a resemblance between them as to assure 
us, not only that they were both sketched by the 
same Divine Hand, but that, moreover, it must 
be the same Almighty Beneficent Power, Who in 
the beginning " commanded the light to shine 
out of darkness," and Who in these latter days 
" doth shine in our hearts." 

Let us, my Christian friends, give full scope 
and play to the fancyings of our souls. This is 
no time to knit our brows, or to confine our 
thoughts to a long train of close reasonings. 
This festive day is sacred to light and joy and 
spiritual renovation ; and we throng about the 
crib of Jesus like a troop of merry children to 
revel in the bright sunshine of His presence, and 
by our very gayety to attest our heart-felt ac- 
knowledgment of His kindness in having "called 
us out of darkness into His marvellous light." 
And yet this brilliant flood of light which inun- 
dates our spirit cannot but recall to our memory 
the gross and empty darkness in which we sat 
before its rising. It is, therefore, with the pur- 
pose to enhance your feeling of triumph, and to 
intensify your gratitude to our Infant King, that 
I ask you to come back with me in imagination 
to that gloomy period. 

Let us, then, place ourselves first in the midst 
of the scene described by Moses. A feeling of 



THE EPIPHANY. 



9 



horror seizes upon us, for it is the reign of riot 
and turbulence : we are alone in a void and 
empty world. World ! shall we call this chaotic 
mass of conflicting elements a world? There is 
no beauty here nor comeliness ; there is no order, 
no harmony. Earth, sea and sky are intermin- 
gled in the wildest confusion. For atmosphere 
there is but the dense exhalation of noxious 
gases. Huge masses of naked rock rise dripping 
from the deep and sink again, as the earth's vast 
bosom heaves and falls. The untamed ocean, 
scorning bounds and limits, raves wildly in the 
exuberance of its youthful strength. There is an 
interminable succession of capricious combina- 
tions and decompositions, and each billow that 
lashes the heavens and each convulsion that 
rends the earth seems to laugh out a scornful 
defiance at Law and Order. What, my breth- 
ren ! Have the elements proved too powerful 
for their Maker ? Have they broken His bonds 
asunder, and cast off His yoke? Not at all. 
The Almighty is giving the first heavy strokes 
upon the shapeless matter ; and the forces of 
nature are His hammers and chisels. That 
which is rough, discordant and turbulent in 
nature, is polished and harmonized in His well- 
conceived plan : and whilst the elements are 
working their will, they are blindly and unresist- 
ingly accomplishing His Will. Do you not in 
fact perceive in spite of the darkness, do you not 
feel that the Spirit of God is here moving gently 
over the raging waters ? 

Every skillful architect, my brethren, develops 
his plan in the recesses of his bosom. He pur- 
poses to build a magnificent palace, but allows 
the vulgar eye to behold only confused heaps of 
granite, sand, lime and timber. But when at 



10 



THE EPIPHAXY. 



length his masterpiece has taken shape he lifts 
the veil and challenges our admiration. Quite 
similar was the course which Almighty God pur- 
sued in the creation of things. Whilst He " laid 
the foundations of the earth, and stretched the 
line upon it, and grounded its bases, and laid the 
corner stone thereof," He made the impenetrable 
cloud of darkness " the garment thereof, and 
wrapped it in a mist, as in swaddling bands," 
(Job xxxviii.). It was only when the framework 
of creation stood solidly erected, only when the 
first angry lashings and fierce antagonisms of 
riotous elements had been succeeded by peaceful 
union and harmonious co-operation that He rent 
the gloomy veil. ki God said : 1 Be light made ' ; 
and light was made." Then did the darkness 
roll away ; and the countless legions of admiring 
Angels took in at a glance the majestic propor- 
tions of the divine handiwork. " Then the 
Morning Stars praised Him together ; and all the 
sons of God made a joyful melody." 

O Light ! fair light ! Thou grandest and 
noblest of this visible creation and at the same 
time thou most mysterious ! Thou art the life 
and the soul of material things. Thou liest on 
the border-line between the corporeal and the 
spiritual. Of all things around us thou art most 
like to thy Creator: for "God is light, and in 
Him there is no darkness." And such is the 
excellence of this wonderful agent that in Scrip- 
ture, as in common parlance, light is the blessed 
emblem of all that is good and great and 
pleasant. Consolation is our light in sadness ; 
and knowledge is light ; and God's holy grace is 
a great and brilliant light which " shineth in 
dark places." 

It is in this higher, supernatural sense that 



THE EPIPHANY. 



I I 



Isaias sings of light. The world which he looks 
forth upon is the world of human souls. The 
darkness which enshrouds it is not the darkness 
of a sunless, starless night ; but the horrible 
darkness of sinful ignorance, the darkness of the 
soul which no noonday splendor can dispel. O 
brethren, how our hearts faint within us when 
we cast our eyes upon the prophet's graphic 
depicture of that old heathen world wherein all 
was dark and all men were struck with blindness 
like the men of Sodom ! Here we not only dis- 
cern every element of gloom and horror which 
entered into the Mosaic delineation of the an- 
cient chaos, — the yawning abyss, the wild confu- 
sion, the all-engulfing darkness — but a hundred 
blacker elements superadded. Here enters the 
element of moral guilt, here voluntary blindness, 
the rage and fury of human passions; murders, 
adulteries, false testimonies, blasphemies, drunk- 
enness, the worship of devils, hatred of God's 
law; and lowering over all — darkness of all dark- 
nesses the grossest — the element of divine repro- 
bation. How peaceful and orderly does the 
ancient anarchy appear when confronted with 
this ! 

Of all the mysteries which we shall never 
fathom until the great day when the dread Judge 
shall vindicate His power and wisdom before the 
trembling nations, this is surely the most inex- 
plicable ; how that the Holy Spirit having, after 
an effort which the wise ones tell us extended 
through a bewildering series of ages, at length 
brought order out of chaos, should so soon be- 
hold His blessed work defaced and ruined by His 
ungrateful creatures. Can you think, my breth- 
ren, that any of those Holy Angels who sang the 
praises of God on the lovely morning of the new 



12 



THE EPIPHANY. 



creation and bade God-speed to the human race 
as it set out upon its journey down the ages like 
some stately ship, fresh from the hands of the 
builder, under the brightest of auspices and 
glittering in the sunlight of heavenly favor, — 
could foresee or apprehend that this all-favored, 
all-applauded race would immediately swerve 
from the right and sunny path into dark ways 
and troubled waters and shatter itself upon the 
rocks ? No eye but the All-seeing Eye of 
God beheld the dismal, shameful future in store 
for the children of Adam. We blush for our 
common nature, brethren, when we survey the 
annals of our race ; though we all of us have 
contributed our share to the revolting record of 
disgrace. It was a fit and ominous prelude to 
the scenes of horror which were to follow that 
the very first created man fell from rectitude 
into depravity, and the first-born of woman into 
the deeper abyss of a brother's hate and murder. 
With the succession of generations, the process 
of degradation and corruption went on with a 
frightful rapidity, men ever " hardening their 
necks," more and more, and " doing much worse 
things than their fathers." O, "they were a 
wicked generation and their malice natural and 
their thought could never be changed ; for it was 
a cursed seed from the beginning." In vain did 
Heaven redouble His scourges. In vain did all 
the elements rise up to punish this race of im- 
pious rebels : the fire consumed them ; the water 
engulfed them ; the earth swallowed them ; 
furious tempests swept them away like the dust ! 
but so long as man survived, man sinned. When 
we reach to the times of Isaias, it would almost 
seem that God Himself had given up all hope of 
reclaiming this " wicked seed," these " ungracious 



THE EPIPHANY. 



13 



children " (Is. i). " For what shall I strike you 
any more/' said the Lord, " you that increase 
transgression ? The whole head is sick ; and the 
whole heart is sad. From the sole of the foot 
unto the top of the head there is no soundness 
therein, — wounds, and bruises and swelling sores." 
Men have indeed gone backward. Whereas 
they were created with an endowment of honor 
and dignity, with wisdom and sanctity and God- 
like intellect, they have transformed themselves 
to become like the irrational beasts. Nay, 
worse : for " the ox knoweth his owner and the 
ass his master's crib ; " but men have lost all 
knowledge of their Creator. Not content with 
corrupting their own nature, they have " changed 
the glory of the Incorruptible God into the like- 
ness of a corruptible man, and of birds, and of 
four-footed beasts, and of creeping things, " 
(Rom. i). In consequence, God has u delivered 
them up to a reprobate sense to do those things 
which are not becoming." They are " filled 
with all iniquity, malice, fornication, avarice, 
wickedness ; full of envy, murder, contention, 
deceit, malignity ; whisperers, detractors, hateful 
to God, contumacious, proud, haughty, inventors 
of evil things, disobedient to parents ; foolish, 
dissolute ; without affection, without fidelity, 
without mercy." O, what a chaos ! what rank 
corruption ! what worse than Egyptian dark- 
ness ! 

In every department of public and private life, 
" all flesh had corrupted its way upon the earth," 
and the corruption was most palpable and noi- 
some in the most elevated spheres of human en- 
ergy. What nobler gift did God grant to man 
than holy religion ? Yet what can be conceived 
more vile and degraded than the revolting mass 



THE EPIPHANY. 



of superstitions, obscenities and atrocities with 
which the heathen nations worshipped their foul 
deities ? 

The political history of the old pagan world is 
little more than a monotonous series of convul- 
sions as terrific as they were aimless. What tor- 
rents of human blood were shed, what countless 
multitudes of human beings were plunged in 
misen' or swept off into bondage, how many 
flourishing cities were leveled with the ground, 
— simply to gratify mankind's morbid thirst for 
confusion and the exercise of brute strength ! 
What indeed were men in the conception of a 
Rameses, a Xerxes, an Alexander, or a Caesar? 
Mere atoms to be massed together and formed 
into avalanches wherewith to overwhelm and de- 
stroy. Every attempt at ameliorating the con- 
dition of a nation seemed but to hasten its 
destruction. Thus in rapid succession the em- 
pire and civilization of the Assyrians and the 
Egyptians were overthrown by the Pieces and 
Persians; those of the Persians by the Greeks; 
those of the Greeks by the Romans. 

A parallel lawlessness reigned in the assemblies 
of the learned. Knowledge, too. had its wars 
and revolutions ; its temporary triumphs and its 
final defeats ; its futile efforts at building-up end- 
ing in disastrous overthrow: till, finally, he was 
deemed the wise and sensible philosopher who, 
giving up the struggle in despair and resign- 
ing himself to live in doubt and darkness, pro- 
nounced that truth was unattainable. 

Now, my brethren, the anarchy described by 
Moses was but the natural process from inception 
to perfection ; and from the instant when God 
first scattered the elemental forces through the 
realms of space, until they had marshaled them- 



THE EPIPHANY. 



selves under His guiding Hand into suns and 
planets, there was a constant advance without 
one backward step. " Whither the impulse of 
the Spirit was to go, thither they went ; and they 
turned not when they went." (Ez. i. 12.) But 
this wretched world of humanity seems ever to 
be tending towards evil, disorder and self-destruc- 
tion. The Spirit of God ruled supreme in the 
beginning and encountered no opposition. But 
you, "O children of men, stiff-necked and uncir- 
cumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the 
Holy Ghost; as your fathers, so you also." (Acts 
vii. 51.) 

But look more narrowly, my brethren, and you 
will discover that the Blessed Spirit 'has been 
ever moving silently over this seething mass 
of human passions. Throughout this period of 
gloom and tempestuous lawlessness, God has 
been constantly in the midst of men though men 
knew it not, for " their foolish heart was dark- 
ened." Not for one instant has the Almighty 
relaxed His firm hold upon the reins of govern- 
ment. Indeed, God, whom men strove to drive 
out of their thoughts and memories, has been all 
along the principal agent, forcing human passions 
to serve as the blind, unwilling instruments of 
His sovereign counsels. Instruments they were, 
it is true, not of His devising; instruments far 
better adapted to destroy than to build up ; but 
that He may exhibit and glorify His almighty 
power, He, the God of Peace, shrinks not from 
this ever-reviving conflict with anarchy, for it is 
His sublime prerogative out of evil to bring forth 
good. He may take centuries to compass His 
vast, mysterious designs; but the Eternal One 
can wait. 

If now we survey the world of human kind as 



i6 



THE EPIPHANY. 



it existed at the birth of Christ, we shall find in 
its condition a very remarkable analogy to the 
situation of the physical universe just previously 
to the creation of light. All the earth-rending 
convulsions of ancient history are ended, and the 
world lies exhausted, pacified and united at the 
feet of its imperial master. Unruly barbarians 
have submitted to the yoke of law and subjugated 
provinces circle about the capital of the world, 
the mighty center of an all-embracing system. 
Thus the roving atoms, the wandering hordes of 
savages, have coalesced into organized bodies ; 
and by divine agency the ambition of successive 
conquerors and the prowess of warlike peoples 
have been used against their natural disposition, 
as instruments of harmony and civilization to 
prepare the way for the kingdom of light. 

Analogous is the condition of the intellectual 
world ; for the incessant contentions of philoso- 
phers and the fruitlessness of that groping after 
truth in the darkness of the unenlightened reason, 
have humbled the proud and convinced men that 
the light must come — if it come at all — from 
without, from on high. And the sad aspect of 
the moral world, — the universal domination of 
sin, the absence of a clear, strong authoritative 
standard of morality, the consciousness of human 
impotence brought home to each one by woeful 
experience, — has caused all but the utterly de- 
praved to sigh for light and strength. 

O God ! all things proclaim that the hour is 
come. Tarry no longer. Scatter this hideous 
mist. Dispel this long, gloomy night. Speak 
the saving word : " Be light made.'' Lo ! in the 
midst of the darkness a light appears, a Star of 
surpassing brilliancy. It sheds its blessed rays 
upon all mankind ; yet there are just now but 



THE EPIPHANY. 



17 



three men who can fully grasp its supernatural 
, meaning. To these men of vast desires it is un- 
mistakably the long-awaited signal from Heaven, 
and, take the earth who will, they will follow 
after whithersoever it shall lead them. It moves 
towards the west ; and without a moment's hesita- 
tion, they set out upon a rugged journey of in- 
definite length and unknown termination. The 
world smiles in contemptuous pity at three de- 
mented enthusiasts who forsake substance for 
shadow, wealth and luxury for a wild fancy. But 
nothing daunted, they hold their way with eyes 
intently fixed upon that beckoning star which, 
night after night, smiles encouragingly on them 
from the unclouded firmament. With whom 
shall we compare you, heroic men — Melchior, 
Gaspar and Baltassar — or has tradition correctly 
reported your names? For my part, brethren, 
no event recorded in history seems to me to recall 
so forcibly the all-hazarding faith of these Magi 
as the heroism of the great Christian mariner, who 
in a later age, amidst the jeers of an incredulous 
world and the vacillations of timorous compan- 
ions, with nothing to rely upon but his unwaver- 
ing trust in God, launched forth his three frail 
barks to face the terrors of an unexplored ocean. 

But whither does the heavenly light conduct 
its confiding followers ? Whither should it lead 
the heathen but to the religion of Moses, the 
religion of law, of expectation, and of prophecy? 
It leads them to Moses, that Moses may guide 
them to One greater than he. It brings them 
to Jerusalem that Jerusalem may light them on 
to Bethlehem. But since Jerusalem has grown 
self-satisfied and has given up her ancient yearn- 
ing after grace and substance, the star re-appears, 
beckons them onward out of a city which is near 
2 



18 



THE EPIPHANY. 



its doom, stands still for a moment over the spot 
where Jesus lies on Mary's arms; then it de-. 
scends and fades away into His brighter light, 
as fades the morning star at the appearance of 
the sun. 

And as the day-star at its rising sheds a bril- 
liant flood of light upon all objects far and near, 
and men leave off groping and walk erect, and 
cast away the doubts, the fears, the helplessness 
and cowardice inseparable from darkness, so these 
three holy men, who had been the life-long prey 
to anxious thoughts, who had argued and con- 
cluded, only to see their arguments and conclu- 
sions come to nought, who had indeed risen 
before the light, but had risen in vain, who had 
fruitlessly ransacked nature and their conscious- 
ness for that magic key which, they say, unlocks 
the mysterious riddle of life, behold them now, 
how they doubt no longer, they theorize no 
longer ; they see : " To them that sat in the 
region of the shadow of death, light is sprung 
up ; " and overwhelmed by its dazzling splendor, 
they sink prostrate in silent adoration. 

This is the glorious vision which Isaias had 
painted, centuries before, in words that glow like 
the living coal with which the seraph had 
touched his lips ; this is the wonderful achieve- 
ment of divine grace which has marked out this 
day among all the days of the year for a day of 
joy and gladness. 

But it is not so much the historical fact of the 
conversion of three kings which gladdens us as 
the series of greater events which that conversion 
prefigures and typifies. We have been taught to 
look upon the Magi, not as strangers, but as 
Fathers in Christ and our own representatives. 
Divine Providence selected these three noble 



THE EPIPHANY. 



19 



men from among their contemporaries that they 
might pay homage to His new-born Son in the 
name of all the Gentiles. When, therefore, they 
fell on their knees and adored the Blessed Infant, 
and opening their treasures, offered their richest 
gifts, they were in the mind and counsel of the 
Most High, simply the harbingers of a long line 
of illustrious sovereigns, mighty peoples, sublime 
poets, profound philosophers, — of martyrs, confes- 
sors, prelates, virgins, — who in their several gen- 
erations were still to come into the presence of 
this Heavenly Child and, falling down, to offer 
Him their choicest gifts, their gold, their incense, 
their talents, their labors, their blood. Hence, 
Isaias, contemplating this vision with a prophet's 
eye, beholds its glories magnified and its colors 
heightened, by being projected upon the back- 
ground of greater marvels that are to follow. 
Behind the principal figures of the picture, he 
sees in dim and shadowy outlines an intermin- 
able procession of camels and dromedaries wind- 
ing its way over the trackless sands; and he 
beholds the vast expanse of waters alive with 
winged ships all hastening to the same port. 
Not a corner of the earth so remote, not an 
island of the seas so secluded, but sends its tribu- 
tary streamlet to swell the mighty flood which 
rolls ever on towards Bethlehem. M The multi- 
tude of the sea shall be converted to Thee, the 
strength of the Gentiles shall come to Thee." 
(Is. lx. 5.) In this dense mass of human shapes 
that sweep along and throng about the Infant 
King, thick as summer storm-clouds or as doves 
that fly to their windows (v. 8), a Hebrew can 
easily recognize the swarthy forms, the pictur- 
esque attire, and the sweet-scented perfumes of 
Arabian kings and Sabsean chieftains. He iden- 



20 



THE EPIPHANY. 



tifies the Indians by their pearls and sapphires, 
the Egyptians by their staid and courtly bearing 
and the venturesome children of Javan by their 
lofty mien and their swift-sailing vessels. But 
these races and the others known by name in 
Israel, form but an insignificant fraction of the mul- 
titudes that flock about the Christ of God. Who 
are all these and whence do they come, whom 
the seer can just descry in the dim distance of 
unborn ages, — men of a hundred different races, 
men of all conceivable grades of civilization, men 
of all imaginable shades of color, — brown men 
and white, olive-skinned and ebon-black and cop- 
per colored ? The prophet knows not the names 
of the barbarous hordes he sees bursting forth 
from Northern forests and sweeping down from 
Eastern uplands. He had never heard mention 
of Celt or Frank or Teuton or Slav, names des- 
tined to play so prominent a part in the future, 
when Nineve should be no more and haughty 
Babylon should be buried in the sands. The 
ancestors of these races, now christianized and 
civilized, lived in the olden times quite beyond 
the pale of organized society. They formed no 
part of any social system ; they circled about 
none of the then centers of civilization ; and if 
known at all in the world of men, it was only as 
formidable comets flying waywardly through 
space, and hurling themselves recklessly upon 
whatever came in their way to shatter and be 
shattered. Yet even the most erratic of comets 
is subject to law. It was precisely these unruly 
tribes that God selected to be the fittest vessels 
of grace, that in them " Christ Jesus might show- 
forth all patience." These peoples that not only 
sat in darkness, but were the baneful source of 
thickest darkness, have seen a great light. That 



THE EPIPHANY. 



21 



same divine light which shone from heaven upon 
the Magi, shone upon these rude hearts from the 
haloed brows of apostolic missionaries. For 
what was St. Paul, what were the other Apostles, 
what were St. Patrick and St. Boniface, and St. 
Francis Xavier, but so many bright, glowing 
stars of Bethlehem, irradiating the nations and 
guiding men of good will to the feet of Jesus? 

And here we are prone to ask why it is that 
Scripture and Holy Church are never weary of 
repeating that Jesus Christ our Saviour is the 
light of men. The frequency with which this 
metaphor is employed can leave no room for 
doubt that there exists a peculiarly close analogy 
between the natural and the supernatural light, 
between this intangible agent which day after 
day streams down upon us from the sun in its 
course and enters our eyes, and pervades our 
being with its subtile influence and the yet more 
subtile and more mysterious influence of Christ's 
Holy Revelation, that Sun of Justice which 
knows no setting, but illumines and quickens our 
inner being, beaming on our hearts with clear and 
steady radiance on the stormiest of days and the 
blackest of nights. 

Now, first of all, consider, my brethren, that 
there is an inner as well as an outer light, a spirit- 
ual as well as a corporal light', a light which is 
seized by the mind as well as the light which 
strikes the visual organ. This is acknowledged 
by every one who says, I see, for I understand, or 
who calls a learned man an enlightened one. 
Our intellect, therefore, lives in a world of its 
own, illumined by a sunlight of its own, and is 
not so utterly dependent on the senses as to be 
helpless when they refuse their aid ; for two of 
the world's greatest poets were quite blind, and 



22 



THE EPIPHANY. 



we know from experience that very frequently 
the mind sees all the more clearly for being shut 
out by darkness from the outer world. And 
what is this sunlight of the mind ? Without 
much hesitation, you will answer that it is Truth, 
which flashes upon the soul as the light upon 
the eye and is stored up in our minds as knowl- 
edge. Now, brethren, if we could confine our 
thoughts and aspirations within the limited 
range of this visible world, if we could bring our- 
selves to believe that we are destined but to 
live on this earth during the short span of our 
natural life and cease to be, we should then be 
very unreasonable if we quarreled with nature 
for not having granted us a more brilliant light 
or endowed us with a keener mental vision. For 
all the ordinary purposes of life we have light 
enough. But there is within us a voice which 
cries out to us, in season and out of season, that 
we are .not the transitory, meaningless beings we 
seem to be, — that we have not been placed on 
this earth to live for a day, to work for a day, to 
play or weep for a day, and then make an exit 
from existence as mysterious as was our entrance 
into it. Conscience, that stern, independent mon- 
itor — within us but not of us — which we can 
neither stifle nor bribe, admonishes us that we 
are in the hands of an Unseen Almighty Power, 
of One who scrutinizes our reins and hearts and 
who will reward us eventually according to our 
works. 

It is borne in upon our souls with a force 
which neither the sneers of impiety nor the 
quibblings of sophistry can overcome, that we 
are environed by a supernatural world, which 
though we see it not, is just as real, just as sub- 
stantial, as this material world which we perceive 



THE EPIPHANY. 



23 



through the senses. We are conscious that there 
are sharp eyes peering at us from the darkness ; 
and when we fix our minds upon that spirit 
world, it vanishes not away like a baseless vision, 
but waxes ever more real and more substantial, 
until the persuasion grows upon us that it is this 
material world which is illusory and that our 
mortal life is but the prelude to an existence 
which will begin in earnest only when we shall 
have been transferred to other scenes. 

So far, my brethren, the natural reason can 
safely guide us ; but when it has thus undermined 
our interest in this world and its petty concerns 
and trivial pleasures, when it has convinced us 
that we are moral beings, the servants of a mighty 
Lord, accountable to our Master for our every 
thought and action, it has brought us to the 
utmost limit of its light ; and leaves us there to 
shudder and stumble on in the darkness beyond. 
Take the unassisted reason at its strongest and 
purest, take it such as we can indeed imagine it, 
but such as it never exists on this earth, unswayed 
by passions, uninfluenced by prejudice, unstained 
by sin, and see how intrinsically incapable it is of 
answering questions like these : What is God ? 
What does He wish me to do ! What reward 
has He in store forme if I serve Him? How 
will He punish me if I offend Him ? When con- 
fronted with questions like these, the wisest ones 
of this world become as childish and uncertain as 
the rest of men. And yet these are questions of 
deepest interest to every one, — questions which 
must be solved by the child, and the feeble 
minded, and the man of business, as well as by the 
philosopher whose hairs have whitened over his 
books. And if these fundamental truths are to 
become the common possession of humanity, 



24 



THE EPIPHANY. 



they must, as St. Thomas wisely argues, be 
brought home to the souls of men by a method 
which, without demanding extraordinary natural 
talents, or many years of close application, shall 
convey the full truth without the possible admix- 
ture of error. It must be an easy method, so 
that the youngest and the dullest may compre- 
hend ; it must be unerring, so as to exclude every 
pretext for doubting and wavering ; it must 
speak with a firm and imperative voice, so as to 
nerve men to resist the wild billows of passion 
and the corroding influences of unbelief. 

Now, is it not evident, that since, on the one 
hand, these moral and religious truths are of the 
very highest importance, and on the other hand, 
the native power of the reason is radically incom- 
petent to grasp them, we stand in need of super- 
natural aid ? We must be re-created; we must 
receive an additional perceptive faculty, a new 
spiritual sight. God, who commanded the light 
to shine out of darkness, must Himself shine in 
our hearts ; else, like the Egyptians scourged by 
the Lord we shall be " fettered with the bonds of 
darkness and a long night, shut up in our houses 
to lie there exiled from the Eternal Providence." 
(Wis. xvii. 2.) Oh horrible night ! to which " no 
power of fire could give light, neither could the 
bright flames of the stars enlighten" it. 

David has very beautifully pictured the soul's 
natural debility in the passages where he likens 
the human reason to a lamp which is dark and 
useless till it be lighted by fire from heaven. 
"Thou lightest my lamp, O Lord; O my God, 
enlighten my darkness." (Ps. xvii. 29.) And 
again " Thy word is a lamp to my feet and a light 
to my paths." (Ps. cxviii. 105.) 

O my brethren, let us give thanks to God the 



THE EPIPHANY. 



25 



Father ; Who hath made us worthy to be par- 
takers of the lot of the saints in light, Who hath 
delivered us from the power of darkness, and 
hath translated us into the kingdom of the Son 
of His love. For he has rent our " dark veil of 
forgetfulness " and brought us forth from the 
dungeon of our native ignorance, to walk in the 
blessed light of His countenance. We can 
truthfully and withal humbly glory that we 
" know all things," that is to say, all things nec- 
essary to be known, all things the knowledge of 
which is essential to our happiness in time and 
eternity ; nor have we " need that any man teach 
us ; for behold, the Lord our God has deigned to 
teach us in person. And what a teacher! How 
superior is thy method, Lord Jesus, to that of 
the wise ones of this world. For there are never 
wanting sublime philosophers who constitute 
themselves teachers of wisdom, and great preten- 
sions they make ; and if we commit ourselves to 
their guidance, they will take us out like bewil- 
dered travelers on a dark, stormy night, to wan- 
der about in the wild region of the unknown, 
with nothing to light our steps but the flickering 
lantern of our reason. But when we have erred 
and stumbled on for years, ever learning and 
never attaining to the knowledge of the tantaliz- 
ing Truth, we find at length that our presumpt- 
uous guides have been all along as blind as 
ourselves, — that though we have labored hard 
throughout the long night, we have labored in 
vain ; we have taken nothing, discovered noth- 
ing, dispelled not one doubt, cleared up not a 
single difficulty ; and after all our labors, we are 
forced to ask ourselves the self-same questions 
which perplexed us a score of years ago, which 
perplexed philosophers a score of centuries ago, 



26 



THE EPIPHANY. 



and which will perplex those who shall reject the 
Truth Revealed a score of centuries to come. 
Such is the method and such the success of the 
teachers of human wisdom. But Thou, Eternal 
Word of God, with all the serenity of omnipo- 
tence, Thou speakest the mighty word, " Be 
light made ! " and lo ! the infant in its cradle, the 
merchant at his counter, the student at his desk, 
lift up their eyes to Thee, and see. The super- 
natural world in its entirety, from the lofty 
throne of God to the unfathomable depths of the 
abyss, stands revealed before their spiritual vis- 
ion, bathed in an ocean of mellow light. Ask 
me not to explain by what process this is accom- 
plished ; for how can mortal man know " by 
what way the light is spread and heat divided 
upon the earth." (Job xxxviii. 24.) One thing 
only I know, that " whereas I was blind, now I 
see " (John ix. 25.) 

There are not two paths to wisdom, one for 
the great, another for the lowly. There is but 
one, as there is but one way of enjoying the 
light of day. But it is a path so sublime as to 
satisfy the longings of the acutest intellects, and 
so straight and easy " that fools cannot err 
therein." There is but one light of men, Jesus 
Christ, " Who enlighteneth every man that 
cometh into this world." In the riches of His 
wisdom, He dispenses His marvelous light to 
different mortals at different periods of their 
lives and in divers manners. To some He im- 
parts it with divine munificence at the very 
outset of their career ; to others in a gradually 
increasing stream through a long period of prep- 
aration. Happy are we, my brethren, who were 
born in the household of Christ. As far back as 
our memory extends into early childhood, we 



THE EPIPHANY. 



27 



have been wiser than all the learned ones of 
Greece and Rome, in the possession of that wis- 
dom which Holy Faith gives to little ones. We 
were not obliged, like the Magi of old and like 
so many others from their generation to our 
own, to follow a slender star-beam of grace, 
through gloomy doubts and anxious thoughts on 
to the Day-star of Bethlehem. Scarcely were 
our eyes opened to the light of day, when a flood 
of far more brilliant light was poured into our 
souls in the sacrament of regeneration. In this 
effulgence of heavenly grace, we saw the super- 
natural world, the world of Jesus and Mary, of 
the angels and saints of God, as clearly and as 
intimately as the world revealed to us by our 
senses. Oh, those happy days of our childhood, 
my brethren, when we saw much and thought 
little, and when it never occurred to us to puzzle 
our brains with hard questions. Little cared we 
then for philosophers or their speculations about 
the composition of light. We saw the merry 
light, and loved to run about and revel in it, and 
see how beautifully it painted the flower and 
sparkled in the dew-drop, and if any one had 
then put hard or skeptical questions to us, we 
should have simply stared at him, thinking he 
was making sport of us. And now that we have 
grown to manhood, has it all improved our 
vision, or intensified our fruition of nature, that 
we have become accustomed to speculating and 
theorizing? Rather has not our sight grown 
dim, and the keen edge of enjoyment been 
blunted in direct proportion to the degree in 
which we have abandoned nature for books, 
observation for reflection, and childhood's glee- 
ful raptures as it glides thoughtlessly over the 
bright surface of things for strenuous divings 



28 



THE EPIPHANY. 



into the dark depths of knowledge ? And when 
we desire one hour of genuine, healthy pleasure, 
are we not compelled to unknit our brows, and 
close our books, and go back, as well as we can, 
to the merry thoughtlessness of childhood? 

Now if this is our case with natural things, 
how much more is it our case with things super- 
natural and divine? The Father of lights de- 
mands nothing from us but that we open our 
eyes to His blessed light, taking care that those 
eyes be pure and simple in order that our whole 
being may be lightsome. He does not require, 
like earthly masters, that we bring to Him any 
special aptitude for learning; for if we be dull, 
we need but ask Him, " who giveth to all 
abundantly/' and He will give us an understand- 
ing and then instruct us. " Intellectum tibi 
dabo et instruam te." He does not expect that 
we shall fathom His ways, or comprehend His 
adorable mysteries. Indeed, it is far safer for us 
to walk humbly, and drink in the light which He 
sheds upon us without venturing presumptuously 
to scrutinize it ; for if we are too bold with it we 
may experience a fate similar to that of the im- 
prudent astronomer who lost his sight through 
fixing his eyes too intently upon the sun. It is 
when we are upon our knees at the foot of the 
cross or at the altar that we drink in the light of 
Heaven in its purity ; and in whatever measure 
we substitute other methods for prayer and the 
sacraments and a loyal acceptance of the teach- 
ing of the church, in that measure will the light 
that is in us wane and our hearts be darkened. 

Finally, brethren, let us not cease to remind 
ourselves that whatever greatness or beauty our 
souls may seem to possess, these excellences are 
not our own, but stream down upon us from 



THE EPIPHANY. 



2 9 



Jesus Christ our Life and our Light. It seems 
to me that we resemble those clouds which often- 
times we behold of an evening massed in the 
western heavens, which while they are pervaded 
by the solar beams are so gorgeous and imposing, 
that looking at them one quite forgets that of 
themselves they are but a handful of vapor. 
But immediately the sun recalls his rays from 
them, the sublime illusion vanishes and they sink 
back into their native unsightly nothingness. 
And is it not written of us that our life " is a 
vapor which appeareth for a little while and after- 
wards shall vanish away" (Ja. iv. 15)? So long 
as Thou dost shine upon us, O Star of Bethle- 
hem, O Sun of Justice, Jesus Christ, we are 
indeed sublime beings. We are children of God, 
princes of heaven, bearing the light of Thy coun- 
tenance signed upon us. But woe to us if we 
are separated from Thee, for if Thou shouldst 
withdraw Thy grace from us we should instantly 
sink back into the gross and empty darkness in 
which we sat before Thy coming. Stay with us, 
Lord Jesus, stay with us, for it is toward even- 
ing ; and the brief day of our mortal existence is 
well-nigh spent. Thou hast been patient with us 
heretofore : bear with our failings yet awhile and 
cease not to light our steps through this sombre 
unwholesome valley upward to the region of un- 
clouded, .never-ending day. Then night shall be 
no more ; and we shall not need the light of the 
lamp — which is our reason, nor the light of the 
sun — which is our faith ; for the Lord God shall 
enlighten us ; and we shall reign forever and 
ever. Amen. 



THE BLESSED SACRAMENT. 



" He hath made a remembrance of His wonderful works, 
being a merciful and gracious Lord ; He hath given food to 
them that fear Him." — Ps. ex. 4-5. 

It is a very general complaint against us, the 
children of Adam, that we are an ungrateful race. 
But it would be more accurate, I think, to char- 
acterize us as a forgetful race ; for those who tax 
us with ingratitude do not mean to charge us 
with being insensible of benefits conferred upon 
us : on the contrary, it is universally conceded 
that the human heart is wonderfully responsive 
to the slightest manifestations of good-will. A 
benevolent smile, or a kind w r ord or an expres- 
sion of concern for our well-being is generally 
quite sufficient to win our affection ; and those 
amongst us whose cold hearts are untouched by 
offices of kindness, we regard — not certainly as 
specimens, — but rather as monsters, of our race. 
No : the really characteristic human defect, that 
which w r e sorrowfully acknowledge in ourselves 
and bitterly complain of in our neighbors is that 
our sentiments are as transient as they are gen- 
erous. The feelings of to-day engross our souls 
to the exclusion of those of yesterday ; the con- 
cerns of the present are ever effacing the recol- 
lections of the past. Call us, then, forgetful or 
inconstant ; but ungrateful we are only in so far 
as it is ungrateful not to preserve a lasting sense 
of our indebtedness to our benefactors. 

Now, my brethren, who is so intimately ac- 
30 



THE BLESSED SACRAMENT. 



31 



quainted with this weak point of our character, 
who has so frequently experienced the momen- 
tary effusiveness of our thanksgivings and the 
subsequent speedy forgetfulness, as our bountiful 
God whose mercy endureth forever? How often 
has He not beheld the wayward children of men 
prostrate before Him collectively or individually, 
pouring forth their souls in hymns of praise for 
benefits received, — hymns which were soon 
hushed for benefits soon forgotten ! Within one 
month from the day when the people of Israel 
swore an eternal allegiance to the Lord Who 
with a strong hand had brought them out from 
the land of bondage, they fell down and adored 
their molten calf. Not a week elapsed from the 
morning when they roused the inhabitants of 
Jerusalem with their Hosannas to the Son of 
David, before they shook the city with wild 
shouts for His crucifixion. Hence the frequency 
of His injunction, speaking as one speaks to little 
children, not to forget His Holy Name, or His 
mercies or His statutes or His covenants. Hence, 
too, His provident solicitude after working any 
extraordinary miracle or making any solemn com- 
pact in favor of His children, to leave them some 
visible token which might serve as an abiding 
memorial. For example : when the Lord pre- 
served Noe and his family from the waters of the 
deluge and established with them an everlasting 
covenant that " all flesh should no more be de- 
stroyed by the waters of a flood/' He set His 
bow in the clouds, that it might be the sign of 
this covenant " for perpetual generations." So, 
too, when He chose the seed of Abraham to be 
His chosen people and the depositaries of His 
promises, He established the rite of circumcision, 
that in their flesh they might have a perpetual 



32 



THE BLESSED SACRAMENT. 



reminder of His covenant. Again, in order that 
His people, and their children forever, should not 
forget the wonders which He had wrought in 
their behalf when He brought them forth from 
Egypt, He enjoined on them the yearly solem- 
nity of the Pasch for the commemoration of that 
great event in its minutest details. Indeed, the 
whole ritual of the Jewish religion was little 
more than an elaborate system of signs and fig- 
ures, remembrances of past or foreshadowings of 
future blessings. 

It was nowise new or strange, therefore, my 
brethren, it was simply in furtherance and de- 
velopment of this fixed design of God to counter- 
act by visible tokens and memorials our unfortu- 
nate proneness to forget His benefits, that our 
Lord Jesus when about to crown and seal the 
long series of His mercies with the awful sacrifice 
of His Blood, was careful to establish a sign, a sac- 
rament, which should serve unto perpetual gener- 
ations as an ever-present memorial of Himself, of 
His labors and sufferings and achievements in our 
behalf. But was it possible, brethren, to devise 
a token of such potency and comprehensiveness 
as to preserve to all time the memory of graces 
so multitudinous in number, so infinite in char- 
acter, so varied, so far transcendinghuman thought 
and expectation as those which were showered 
upon mankind by the Incarnate Word of God? 
Surely no rainbow in the clouds, no yearly rite of 
unleavened bread or eating of a paschal lamb 
would be adequate to the task of keeping fresh 
in our memories the favors conferred on us by 
our merciful Lord. No empty lifeless symbol 
will suffice ; to be efficacious the memorial must 
be as immortal as energetic, as divine as its orig- 
inal. The sacrament which is to commemorate 



THE BLESSED SACRAMENT. 



33 



so many stupendous miracles and so many be- 
wildering mysteries must contain within itself the 
virtue, the sublimity, the omnipotence of them 
all. Here then was a task full worthy of that 
Divine Intellect in which " are hid all the trea- 
sures of wisdom and knowledge." (Col. ii. 3.) 
And with what adorable skill, my brethren, our 
Lord Jesus did accomplish His lofty purpose 
when He instituted the Blessed Sacrament of the 
Altar! To use the words of the inspired Psalm- 
ist, who beheld from afar this heavenly banquet 
whereof he had no power to eat who served the 
tabernacle (Heb. xiii. 10), our Gracious Lord in 
order to give food to His children, food for their 
minds, their memories and their hearts, condensed 
into one great miracle all the saving wonders 
which He had wrought from the beginning. " He 
hath made a remembrance of His wonderful 
works, being a merciful and gracious Lord ; He 
hath given food to them that fear Him." In this 
sacrament our Blessed Redeemer not only pre- 
sents Himself to us really, truly, substantially ; 
but He deigns to exhibit Himself not as inactive 
or resting from His labors, but in the constant 
exertion of His almighty power, in the unweary- 
ing recapitulation of His merciful works. Again 
for our sake He pronounces the creative word ; 
again He breathes the breath of eternal life into 
our helpless clay; again He stoops to dwell 
amongst us ; again and again He condescends to 
die a mystic death. Such is the remedy which 
He has provided against our human frailty ; such 
is the expedient by which He keeps the memory 
of His graces ever vivid in the souls of men. 

But it will bring home to your minds more 
clearly the truth of what I have been observing, 
if we briefly consider the cardinal benefits which 
3 



34 



THE BLESSED SACRAMENT. 



were conferred upon us by our merciful Lord and 
ponder how forcibly they are all recalled to our 
remembrance by the Blessed Sacrament of the 
Altar. 

I. The first of these wonderful works in the 
order of time and the most fundamental in char- 
acter was the creation. By His Only Begotten 
Son, the brightness of His glory and the figure 
of His substance, God made the world. This is 
the all-important truth which determines our re- 
lation to Him and which explains the divine in- 
terest He takes in our welfare. " He made us 
and not we ourselves." He is our Lord and 
Creator; we are the work of His hands. How 
disastrous in its consequences would it not be to 
lose sight of this vital truth ! Yet, strange to say, 
we are prone to forget our Maker. Thousands 
of human beings ignore Him in theory ; millions 
in habitual practice. Indeed very few keep Him 
constantly before their eyes. To obviate, there- 
fore, this fatal danger which besets His children, 
to reassert openly His supreme dominion over 
His creatures, our Lord condescends day after 
day on this Altar to repeat the omnipotent fiat 
which brought existence out of nothingness ; so 
that when the awful words of consecration are 
pronounced, again the light springs up in dark- 
ness to reveal a new heaven and a regenerate 
earth. Nay, if it be proper to proclaim that one 
work of the Infinite God is greater than another, 
we may dare affirm that the miracle wrought upon 
the altar is more stupendous than the miracle 
which it recalls. What, in fact, is our conception 
of the original creation ? There was a moment 
before which nothing existed save God alone. 
But He spoke the Almighty Word ; and instantly 
there sprung into being whatever is or moves in 



THE BLESSED SACRAMENT. 



35 



heaven on earth or in the deep. An adorable 
and tremendous exercise of Infinite Power! But 
does the recollection thereof fill your soul with 
one half the awe which seizes upon you when 
here before your eyes He makes a remembrance 
of this wonderful work? Here, too, there is be- 
fore the consecration a mere nothing, a wafer of 
bread, a few drops of wine ; but the same Al- 
mighty Word who commanded the light to shine 
out of darkness goes forth once more from the 
bosom of the Eternal Father ; and your believing 
eye beholds, not a circling orb or an earth teeming 
with created life, but, entering on a new, myste- 
rious sacramental existence, the Infinite Majesty 
of your Incarnate God. And as if to emphasize 
the excellence of the memorial, this creative word 
is pronounced not by the Almighty Himself, but 
by the weak tongue of a mortal man. Brought 
thus day by day so awfully nigh to your Creator 
it is rendered absolutely impossible that you 
should forget either His Sovereign Power or your 
utter dependence upon Him. 

II. Let us now turn to consider the second won- 
derful work of the Lord in favor of the human 
race, the elevation of mankind to the supernat- 
ural state. This was a miracle of love and com- 
passion the magnitude of which we cannot fully 
realize whilst we are sojourners on this wretched 
earth ; nevertheless we are sufficiently aware of 
its nature to be penetrated with gratitude to our 
all-merciful Lord. We were formed, my brethren, 
of the slime of the earth. We were sown in cor- 
ruption ; of the earth, earthy. Our natural posi- 
tion was that of servants, to be thankful if we 
received the treatment and the food of servants. 
God has one only begotten Son, equal to the 
Father and Heir of His Infinite Majesty. But 



36 THE BLESSED SACRAMENT. 



by an act of condescension which surpasses 
human understanding, it was pleasing to the 
Eternal Father to adopt unto His bosom, and to 
the Son to admit as joint heir to His inheritance, 
man, poor worm of the earth, the lowest in the 
order of intelligent beings. " We received not 
the spirit of bondage in fear ; but we received 
the spirit of adoption of sons whereby we cry 
Abba, Father." (Rom. viii. 17.) Thus " we are 
called and we are sons of God." Elevated to 
such a dazzling height above his original condi- 
tion, man in. the person of Adam received a rich 
endowment of graces equivalent to a new crea- 
tion. He received new qualities and habits ; he 
breathed a heavenly atmosphere ; he lived a new 
supernatural life. You, my brethren, who have 
experienced what an ineffable blessing it is to 
enjoy this divine life quickened by faith and love, 
who have been admitted to an intimate union 
with God and His holy angels, who have been 
sustained amidst trials and sorrows by the prom- 
ise of that inheritance of glory which is in store 
for you, — you can understand what an immense 
debt of gratitude we owe to the compassionate 
Lord who " raised up the needy from the earth 
to place him with the princes" of His heavenly 
court. At the same time, we are forced to con- 
fess that it is with extreme difficulty we maintain 
within us this supernatural life. The imperial 
robe of sanctifying grace which adorns us does 
not avail to conceal the meanness of our extrac- 
tion. Nature wrestles with grace and too often 
expels it. Our native ignoble impulses are ever 
warring with the Divine Spirit Who has come 
upon us from above ; and we are apt at any 
moment to trample the covenant under foot, tear 
up our birthright, scatter to the winds our lofty 



THE BLESSED SACRAMENT. 



37 



aspirations, and return to grovel in our kindred 
earth. And how many there are, my brethren, 
" who were once illuminated, have tasted also the 
heavenly gift and were made partakers of the 
Holy Ghost have moreover tasted the good word 
of God and the powers of the world to come, and 
are fallen away" (Heb. vi. 4)! It was not 
therefore solely for the purpose of reminding us 
of the divine life within us, but moreover it was 
in order to preserve it and strengthen it that our 
Lord Jesus gave us this food from Heaven, the 
same divine Bread, full of all sweetness with 
which He satiates His holy angels. " This is the 
bread which cometh down from heaven ; that if 
a man eat of it, he may not die" (John vi. 50). 

My dear brethren, if even this natural life can- 
not be maintained without a constant supply of 
external food, how could we sustain that higher 
divine life in our souls without the unceasing 
infusion of strength from above ? For in truth 
it is not so much our life as the life of Christ 
within us. It is not in our own strength, but in 
the strength of this celestial food that, like the 
prophet of old, we walk unto the mount of God. 
" And I live," says the great apostle, " now not I, 
but Christ liveth in me " (Gal. ii. 20). "He 
that eateth me," says the Lord, " the same also 
shall live by me." (John vi. 58.) It is this consider- 
ation which prepares us to understand His 
strong asseveration : " Amen, amen I say unto 
you : except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man 
and drink His Blood, you shall not have life in 
you." It prepares us, furthermore to hail with 
joy the glorious announcement that this new life 
superadded to our natural life, as being divine, 
must be immortal ; " If any man eat of this 
bread, he will live forever." O blessed fruit of 



38 



THE BLESSED SACRAMENT. 



this tree of life ! O charity of Jesus stronger than 
death ! True, my Christian friends,, this natural 
life of ours will run its brief course and end. 
That which is earthly and corruptible in us will 
crumble to earth again. This great world will 
very soon roll on without us ; and the dust of 
oblivion will settle thick and fast upon our silent 
graves. But even in the midst of corruption and 
nothingness Christ knows His own. The seeds of 
immortality implanted in the Christian's body by 
this sacrament of life still cling to that handful 
of ashes; and on His own appointed day, out 
from the jaws of death Christ will claim His 
own ; and that which was dead shall live again in 
a triumphant resurrection : " He that eateth my 
flesh and drinketh my blood hath everlasting life ; 
and I will raise him up on the last day." My 
dearly beloved, " labor not for the meat which 
perisheth, but for that which endureth unto life 
everlasting, which the Son of man will give you." 
(John vi. 27.) 

III. But these two great mercies of the Lord 
— the creation and the adoption — were on the 
point of being frustrated by human wickedness. 
Mankind, by the deplorable sin of Adam, re- 
belled against their Creator and spurned the 
divine adoption, most perversely embracing 
death in preference to life. What would have 
become of us, my brethren, if, where sin abounded, 
the tender mercies of our Redeemer had not 
more abounded ; if He had suffered human un- 
worthiness to triumph over His benign purpose? 
But, happily, our base apostasy but gave Him an 
additional opportunity for displaying the riches 
of His loving-kindness. When apparently de- 
feated in His generous design of making us like 
unto Himself, He was not deterred, in His effort 



THE BLESSED SACRAMENT. 



39 



to reclaim us, from making Himself like unto us 
in all things except our sins. He, the eternal Son 
of God, who vainly, as it seemed, had desired to 
raise the low-born servants to a participation in 
His own Divine Dignity, veiled the dazzling 
glory which ravishes the seraphim, and put on 
the outward garb of the servant. 

But why do I say "outward garb?" He 
really became that which He seemed to be. He 
took the very flesh and blood and bone of the 
servant. He took the servant's weakness and 
poverty. He was seen in hunger and thirst and 
weariness and nakedness. There was not on this 
wide earth a slave whose lot was so wretched as 
that of the Incarnate Son of God. Not only was 
the Word made Man ; but "He was despised, and 
the most abject of men, a man of sorrows and 
acquainted with infirmity ; " and we " thought 
Him as it were a leper and as one struck by 
God ; " for the whole burden of the sins and the 
wretchedness of the world, so hard to be borne 
even when dispersed among the entire human 
family, was laid upon His innocent Head. O 
excess of love, which prompted Thee, Lord 
Jesus, to identify Thyself with a degraded race! 
And blessed the eyes that beheld Thee in the 
days of Thy sacred Flesh ! How we envy, not 
only Mary who gave Thee life, and Joseph and 
Simeon who held Thee in their arms, and John 
who reclined upon Thy breast, but the Magda- 
lene, and St. Peter and the repentant thief, and 
the sinners and publicans who heard from Thy 
blessed lips the sweet word of pardon ! How 
enviable the generation that looked upon Thy 
divine countenance ! But why, my Saviour, since 
Thou earnest at all, why didst Thou not stay for- 
ever? Wherefore so partial to one age and one 



40 



THE BLESSED SACRAMENT. 



nation, Thou who earnest to save all men in 
every age and clime? Why didst Thou appear, 
O heavenly Vision, if Thou wast so soon to van- 
ish again, leaving in our hearts a comfortless void 
and an insatiable yearning? Such, my brethren, 
would have been our complaint, had not Christ 
Jesus made a remembrance of this wonderful 
work. But, so well has He provided for us, that 
we of the flock of Leo XIII. have little reason to 
envy the lambs that St. Peter fed. For, every 
day by an ineffable exercise of His power He 
repeats this stupendous miracle. Without leav- 
ing the throne of His majesty, He is born again 
upon the altar. He comes to dwell once more 
amongst us ; and we see His glory through the 
veil with which He surrounds it. Not only does 
He speak to us and exhort us and console us and 
warn us and bless us ; but He is not content 
unless He enter in and take up his abode within 
our breast as truly and really as once He dwelt 
in the chaste womb of Mary. But, you will say, 
we do not see Him as Mary and Joseph and the 
Magdalene saw Him with the eyes of the body, 
but merely with the eye of faith. But did it 
require less faith to discern the Eternal Word of 
God in that humble form in which He appeared 
in Judea and Galilee than it requires to recognize 
Him in His mercy-seat upon the altar? Herod 
saw Him in His sacred Humanity, and pro- 
nounced Him a madman ; the Jews saw Him 
and recognized only the carpenter's son ; the 
priests and the Pharisees saw Him and heard Him 
repeatedly, and ended by proclaiming Him a 
blasphemer and one possessed of the devil. No ; 
my brethren ; if you cannot believe Him when 
He says; "This is my body:" you certainly 
would not have believed Him when He said ; 



THE BLESSED SACRAMENT. 



41 



"The Father and I are one/' Seek not to 
found your faith upon flesh and blood ; for " it is 
the Spirit that quickeneth ; the flesh profiteth 
nothing." It is not the carnal vision, but solely 
the illumined eye of faith which can penetrate 
the veils which conceal the divine majesty of the 
Son of God. But to us who believe, Christ is 
ever near at hand. His arms are ever extended 
and His Sacred Heart is ever open to welcome 
us. Indeed, He dwells in the midst of men 
more intimately in this sacrament then when He 
walked the earth ; for then He united Himself to 
our common humanity ; He became one with us 
in nature ; but He here completes that which He 
then began. He unites Himself to us personally 
and individually, so that He dwells not only 
amongst us, but within us. So vividly are we 
reminded day after day of the adorable mystery 
of the Incarnation ! 

IV. There remained one other wonderful work 
of our merciful Lord which needed to be com- 
memorated, the all-consummating sacrifice of the 
Cross. It was of imperative necessity that the 
awful mystery of our Redeemer's death, that 
dread sacrifice which, though offered but once, 
was offered for the salvation of each individual 
sinner, should be brought home forcibly to the 
soul of every one thereby redeemed. But how 
was it possible to prevent an act which could not 
be repeated from passing gradually into the dim 
region of by-gone history? Infinite Wisdom, 
brethren, devised the means. Christ has made it 
possible for us who live so many centuries after 
that He shed His Blood for us, to be present 
in person at that great sacrifice. This strange 
assertion may well appear absurd and contradic- 
tory to those who presume to measure divine 



42 



THE BLESSED SACRAMENT. 



truths by the narrow standard of their weak rea- 
son ; but to you, my brethren, how can it seem 
marvelous that He who conquers Space, that He 
may be at the same moment in heaven with His 
Father and with His children upon earth, should 
also annihilate Time in order to enable all his 
elect to the latest generation to be present at the 
sacrifice which has redeemed them all ? We 
have been taught the consoling truth that when 
we assist at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, we are 
not witnessing an empty symbol ; for the same 
Divine Victim who once offered Himself in satis- 
faction for our sins, is here truly present, He 
truly offers Himself and is truly consumed. We 
behold Him mystically slain by those living and 
effective words which He has commanded us to 
utter, words more piercing than any two-edged 
sword, — whereby His Body and His Blood are 
sacramentally divided before our eyes. " For as 
often as you shall eat this bread and drink the 
chalice, you shall show the death of the Lord, 
until He come." (i Cor. xi. 26.) When, there- 
fore, we gather about the altar, we are all but 
standing at the very foot of the cross. We be- 
hold what is consoling and redeeming in that 
adorable scene, to the exclusion of all that is 
heart-rending. The victim is here ; but He 
bleeds no longer from His gaping wounds. The 
agonizing pangs and the melancholy feeling of 
abandonment are long since past ; His Mother's 
grief has been comforted ; the cruel soldiers tor- 
ture Him no more; and the voice of the blas- 
phemer is silenced. But His adorable Flesh is 
still with us to intercede for us, and His Precious 
Blood still flows to wash away our sins. 

Thus you perceive, my dear brethren, how 
intensely nigh and present the venerable mys- 



THE BLESSED SACRAMENT. 



43 



teries of religion are brought to our souls. We 
do not assemble in our churches, as the Jews did 
in their synagogues, to feed our souls upon the 
recollection of past events. With the Church of 
Jesus Christ, of Him who is the same, yester- 
day, to-day and forever, there is no past, but an 
ever-living present. We rehearse not the won- 
ders of by-gone ages ; we behold them re-enacted 
under our own eyes. 

In conclusion, let me remind you that if this 
adorable sacrament is the epitome and the 
recapitulation of all the divine wonders and mys- 
teries ; so, correlatively, an act of faith in it, is a 
comprehensive summary of our belief in each and 
several of the wonders and mysteries which it 
commemorates. To one who does not yield a 
full and hearty assent to all the doctrines of the 
Christian religion, this dogma of the Real Pres- 
ence is repugnant beyond expression. It is 
indeed a crucial test ; and hence heresy recoils 
from it. Heresy professes her willingness to 
accept miracles which happened ages ago, and 
mysteries which are wrapped in clouds or appear 
as ill-defined shadows. But when miracles and 
mysteries are set before her as things substantive 
and definite, then heresy shrinks back ; and she 
is thus convicted of unbelief even in the mare 
intangible dogmas which she makes profession of 
believing. We however, my brethren, have not 
thus learned Christ. We who, through no merit 
of ours, are the children of Him who hath re- 
joiced like a giant to run the way, — we find no 
difficulty in making acts of heroic faith in Him 
with whom it is natural to perform heroic deeds. 
It is not faith that we need ask of Thee, Lord 
Jesus, but rather that Thou make us worthy so 
to venerate this sacred gift, that we may now and 



44 



THE BLESSED SACRAMENT. 



evermore enjoy the full benefit of those salutary- 
marvels which it commemorates. Grant it 
through the prayers of Mary, Compassionate 
Redeemer, who with the Father and the Holy 
Ghost, etc. 



THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS. 



" One of the soldiers with a spear opened his side, 
and immediately there came out blood and water."— John 
xix. 34. 

EVERY instinct of humanity within us revolts 
at this wanton mutilation of our Saviour's lifeless 
Body. After the countless indignities heaped 
upon Him during life, after the calumnies and 
the revilings, after the buffets and the spittle, 
after the scourges and the thorns, after the cruel 
nails and the shameful cross, after those three 
weary hours of agony culminating in the expir- 
ing cry of a broken Heart — will not His torturers 
suffer Him to rest quietly even in death? O, 
spear of Longinus ! Thou art rude and bold. 
Thou hast no right to invade the sanctuary of 
the heart ; for the heart, even of a criminal, is a 
hidden shrine which ought to be respected. 
What good can it do so ruthlessly to throw open 
to the light of day that which nature cloisters 
from the gaze of men by a triple wall ? Canst 
thou, by showing us the fleshy fabric of that 
Heart, unravel the thousand mysteries of the 
divine life which has just been quenched ? 
Rash soldier, rude spear, what has come of your 
boldness? " Immediately there came out blood 
and water." It may be doubted, brethren, 
whether the rough soldier seized the supernat- 
ural meaning of this result of his hasty act. But 
there was one present who, standing upon a 
loftier plane and enlightened by the Holy Spirit, 

45 . 



46 THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS. 



saw and read therein a mystery of unfathomable 
depth. 

Through the deep gash made in the side of 
Jesus by the point of the Roman spear, St. 
John entered into a fuller, clearer, more vivid 
comprehension of the mystery of God made 
Man. We may all have experienced how power- 
fully a great idea, when fully grasped, will sway 
the mind. It becomes the sun and center of our 
intellect, the nucleus around which our other 
ideas cluster, and from which they derive light ; 
and quite frequently the germ of this central and 
absorbing idea is something which to other 
minds seems comparatively unfruitful. Thus, 
when you read that forth from the opened side 
of Jesus " there came blood and water," it is pos- 
sible that only a vague and transient impression 
is produced upon your mind. But how different 
was the impression which this spectacle of the 
piercing of his Beloved Saviour's Heart, and the 
consequent emission of blood and water, made 
on the soul of the Evangelist. We are surprised 
to notice that, instead of expressing loathing or 
indignation against the soldier, he seems rather to 
look upon him with awe, as if an instrument of 
the Divinity. For using a " watchful word," as 
St. Augustine has observed, the Beloved Disciple 
does not say that the soldier tore or lacerated 
the side of Jesus, but simply that he opened it ; 
and in the mingled stream of blood and water 
which issued forth, he discovers, symbolized and 
portrayed, a wonderful mystery, one which he is 
anxious that we should dwell upon ; for with a 
solemn reiteration he continues : " He that saw 
it, hath given testimony, and his testimony is 
true. And he knoweth that he saith true, that 
you also may believe. " Now, brethren, what is 



THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS. 



47 



this mystery which St. John has discovered, and 
which he inculcates with so much emphasis ? 
We need but turn to his First Epistle to find the 
explanation. In this Epistle, written many 
years later, the Beloved Disciple is defending the 
mystery of the Word made Flesh against here- 
tics, who, to use the Apostle's phrase, were dis- 
solving Jesus ; and he argues that the Man 
JESUS was truly God as well as Man, because 
there issued from His side blood together with 
water. " This is He that came by water and 
blood, Jesus Christ : not by w r ater only, but by 
water and blood." You see, my brethren, how, 
through these many years which have elapsed 
since St. John stood with Mary by the cross of 
Jesus, he still beholds as vividly as ever, symbol- 
ized in the united stream of blood and water 
which gushed forth from our Redeemer's Heart, 
the union of the God-head with manhood in the 
Person of the Son of God. Holy Church also, 
founded upon the Apostles, and tenacious of 
their traditions, still continues to represent this 
ineffable Union by mingling a few drops of water 
with the sacrificial wine which is to be changed 
into the Blood of Christ. Can we, beloved 
Christians, desirous of honoring the Sacred 
Heart of Jesus, do anything better and wiser 
than to follow out the inspired suggestion of the 
Evangelist ; and in the blood and water issuing 
from the Heart of our Lord, contemplate that 
Blessed Heart as thus exhibited to us in a two- 
fold light ? It is a Divine Heart ; and it is a 
Human Heart. It is the Heart of the Word 
Incarnate ; and it is the Heart of a Deified 
Human Nature. It pours forth the Blood 
of God to atone for the sins of the world ; 
and it pours forth water mingled with the 



4 8 



THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS. 



nobler element to cleanse and refresh a fallen 
race. 

Let us, therefore, for a brief space, concentrate 
our thoughts upon the great Heart of Jesus : and 
in order to do so the more fruitfully, let us men- 
tally separate the two indissoluble elements 
which compose it. We shall adore it, first, as 
the manifestation and embodiment of God's love 
for man, and, secondly, as the model and the 
perfection of man's love for God. By thus sepa- 
rately examining these two constituent elements 
of the Sacred Heart, we shall be better able to 
appreciate its adorable grandeur. And do Thou, 
ever-gracious Redeemer, deign to impart un- 
wonted force to my feeble w r ords. Cleanse my 
lips, and inflame my poor heart and the hearts of 
these Thy loving children with a spark of that 
heavenly fire which Thou art come to spread 
upon the earth, and which it is Thy ardent 
desire should be enkindled. 



I. 

There was a time, my Christian friends, when 
God, as He had no arms to embrace us, no blood 
or tears to shed for us, no countenance to beam 
light and sympathy upon us, so He had literally 
no heart which could respond to ours. He was 
simply the Infinite God. More than that man 
could not learn about Him ; nearer than that man 
could not approach to Him. " My thoughts are 
not your thoughts, nor My ways your ways," 
said the Lord. Go back in imagination, my 
brethren, to the ages which preceded the Incarna- 
tion, and you will readily understand why I have 



THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS. 



49 



said that the Heart of Jesus is the manifestation 
and embodiment of God's love for man. Remove 
that Sacred Heart from your thoughts and mem- 
ory; take it out of this Tabernacle where it burns 
with eternal love for you ; and see what you have 
done. You have plunged us from light into 
darkness, from freedom into bondage. You have 
deprived us of our adoption of children, and 
thrown us back into our original condition of ser- 
vants ; you have banished confidence from our 
breasts, and brought back the reign of trembling 
fear. Oh ! how cold and dreary this world would 
become again if the noble Heart of Jesus should 
cease to beat ! 

Not that the boundless, everlasting love with 
which God loves us is any more intense in the 
human Heart of Jesus than it is in the bosom 
of the Deity; for His infinite attributes can 
neither wax nor wane. The difference is entirely 
owing to the limitations and imperfections of our 
mind and heart. The Supreme Being is high 
above the reach of our faculties. His very infini- 
tude overmasters and dazzles us. Our imagina- 
tion is bewildered when we strive to picture 
Him ; our reason turns in despair from the task 
of forming any adequate conception of His 
essence ; and we cannot persuade our drooping 
hearts of the possibility of any intimate union 
being formed between two such extremes. 

Do not misunderstand me, my brethren. It is 
indeed easy, it is almost a necessity of our nature 
for us to love our Creator. We meet on all sides 
so many and so striking proofs of His loving 
kindness, mercy, providence, goodness, as must 
engender love and gratitude in the most insensi- 
ble breast. Behold within yourselves the grand- 
est evidences of God's amiability. He has be- 
4 



THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS. 



stowed upon you an intellect which can soar 
above space and matter, commune with angels, 
and grapple with any object save only the Infinite 
Being Himself. He has given you a will which 
tyrants cannot shackle nor passions enslave ; a 
memory which can annihilate time and take in 
ages at a glance. Look at the body which He 
has framed for you, and which even in its present 
degradation is the most marvelous work of the 
visible world. Then look abroad upon this bright 
universe created for your use and benefit. Be- 
hold this great earth ever teeming with food to 
nourish you, with forests to shade and pro- 
tect you, with beautiful and gratefully-scented 
flowers to delight your senses. Consider this 
balmy ocean of air in which you live, and which 
conveys to your ears the cheerful utterances of 
the animate and inanimate creation, and the God- 
like accents of the human voice. Then lift tip 
your eyes to the brilliant orb of day in which the 
Lord hath set His tabernacle, and from which 
His blessed smile radiates far and wide. Or go 
forth in the night, whilst men and nature slum- 
ber, and read His beauty and His loveliness in 
the silvery light of the moon and in the ever- 
varying splendors of the starry heavens. Every- 
thing above us, around us, cries out to us that 
our Lord is great and good, and magnificent, and 
worthy of all praise, love and benediction. We 
will praise Him then, and love Him and honor 
Him all the days of our life. 

But, my dearly beloved, out of the very in- 
tenseness of our admiration there springs up a 
dark thought to assail us. The more we reflect 
upon the greatness of God, the more sensible we 
become of the existence of an infinite gulf be- 
tween Him and us. Is it not, we ask ourselves, 



THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS. 



presumptuous to hope that He who is All-perfect 
should bestow a serious thought, not to speak of 
affection, upon dust and ashes? that the Light 
Inaccessible should blend with darkness ? that 
the All-Holy One should fail to despise and 
abominate wretched sinners ? What is man, O 
Lord, that Thou shouldst set Thy heart upon 
him ? He is a handful of vapor ; a fleeting 
shadow ; a dry leaf floating in the wind ; and 
generations of men are, in Thy sight, as the 
grass which falls before the reaper. We lose 
ourselves in our own insignificance ; for we are 
but infinitesimal units in this vast world of ra- 
tional beings ; and we tremble all the more when 
we reflect that we are worse than nothingness — vile 
sinners, a blot upon God's fair creation, an abomi- 
nation to be swept away by the Almighty breath 
of the Lord; and how often the justice of God 
has laid whole nations prostrate with His triple 
scythe, war, famine and pestilence ! How, 
then, is it possible that God can love met How, 
indeed, when all comes to all, can He have any 
regard for anything outside of Himself? What 
is there in us or in any creature, from the high- 
est to the lowest, that can entice Him to bestow 
His love upon it ? Nothing ; absolutely noth- 
ing. 

Why have I forced these disagreeable thoughts 
upon your mind? Simply to make you feel 
how greatly we are indebted to our knowledge 
of Christ's Blessed Heart for our present un- 
wavering conviction and placid confidence that 
we possess God's tender love. This conviction 
is the exclusive inheritance of Christians. Cer- 
tainly the poor heathen had no such assurance. 
They held a very false conception of their great 
Creator. God was to them an object, generally 



52 



THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS. 



of terror, sometimes of veneration, sometimes 
even of admiration and gratitude, but never of 
intimate, personal affection. He was a Deity 
.who had ever to be appeased by cruel sacrifices, 
in so much that it was not unusual among them 
to endeavor to propitiate Him by offering up 
human victims, nay, their own beloved offspring. 
Even the Hebrews, His chosen people, were so 
imperfectly acquainted with His true character, 
that they served Him like trembling slaves. 
They had a belief, that no one could look upon 
His face and live ; and when the Lord descended 
upon Mount Sinai to converse with them, they 
were struck with terror, and cried out, " Let not 
the Lord speak to us, lest we perish. " 

Yet all this time God was really loving man — 
not mankind in general, but each individual 
soul that He had created ; and not as one might 
love a pretty toy or a trivial object, but with the 
same boundless, eternal love with which He 
must love His own Infinite Essence. But how 
were men to be persuaded that this was the case ? 
Clearly they could not be brought up to the level 
of the Infinite. God and man, though near in 
space — for in Him we live, and move, and are — 
remained infinitely wide apart in ways and 
thoughts. You know, my brethren, how this 
great abyss between us and our God was bridged 
over. Since man could not rise to heavenly 
heights, God deigned to lower Himself to the 
level of man and earth. He assumed a human 
nature, put on human sensibility, spoke with a 
human tongue, re-cast His love in the familiar 
mold of a human Heart, and thus translated into 
a language intelligible to mortals that Gospel of 
eternal charity which He had been preaching, 
eloquently indeed, but, as it seemed, in an un- 



THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS. 



53 



known tongue, from the foundation of the world. 
Rejoice, therefore, children of Adam ; you shall 
now become more intimately acquainted with the 
attributes of your God. He will come to you 
openly ; you shall see Him, embrace Him, and 
speak to Him. Be not afraid, like those that 
shuddered at the foot of Mount Sinai ; for see ! 
He comes shorn of terrors. There is nothing 
stern, forbidding or imperious in His look. Be- 
hold your God ! Not such as you foolishly pic- 
tured Him to yourselves ; but meek, humble, 
tender-hearted, pitiful, affable, long-suffering be- 
yond compare. See that God-like Heart, how it 
throbs responsive to all your joys, your fears, your 
hopes, your sorrows. Lay aside Jewish trembling 
and heathenish superstitions, and see for your- 
selves. O Divine Heart of Jesus, Thou art a 
book which the dullest can read. We need but 
look upon Thee, and all our doubts and misgiv- 
ings are dispelled. Thou art the Heart of our 
God. In Thee is concentrated, embodied and 
made visible the eternal love with which He loved 
us before the mountains were lifted up, or the 
foundation of the earth was laid. How sweet it 
is to ask myself in Thy presence, whether God 
cares for me ! What think you, brethren ? Look 
upon that Heart cut in twain for each of us ; and 
see if God does not love us, personally, inti- 
mately, as a parent loves his child. Yes, indeed, 
you will say, " Dilexit me;" He loved me, and 
delivered Himself to sorrow and death for me. 

Does God love us and care for us individually? 
Let those of our race answer who knew Him 
best. Let Mary, ever Virgin, answer, whom He 
favored more highly than all the Angelic Host. 
Let St. Joseph answer, who lived with Him inti- 
mately for so many years, and who expired in 



54 THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS. 



His arms. Let St. John answer, who leaned 
upon His breast and felt the throbbings of His 
Sacred Heart at the Last Supper. Let the little 
children answer, whom He blessed and took to 
His sheltering arms. 

But, you may say, these were all saints and 
innocents ; perchance, whilst He loves the just, 
He cares not for sinners. Is this true, Mary 
Magdalene ? Tell us, thou whom men called 
the sinful woman. Did Jesus gather His cloak 
about Him, when He saw thee approaching ? 
Did He spurn thee, when thou daredst to kiss 
His feet ? O no ! Whilst the Pharisees reviled 
thee, and reproached thy Lord for not bidding 
thee be gone, He shielded thee, pleaded for 
thee, pardoned-thee, smiled upon thee ; and that 
heavenly smile enlightened thy repentant soul 
through all thy after life, whether in the streets 
of Jerusalem, or on the summit of Calvary, or at 
the open grave of thy Master, or in thy grotto at 
Marseilles. Does God love poor sinners ? Tell 
us, Blessed Peter, whom He melted into repent- 
ance by that one look so kindly sad, so compas- 
sionately reproachful. Tell us, ye publicans, with 
whom He ate; ye Samaritans, with whom He 
reasoned ; tell us, thou poor adulteress, whom 
He would not condemn ; tell us, repentant thief, 
to whom He spoke words of comfort on the 
cross ; tell us even thou, stony-hearted Judas, 
whom He kissed. And without going back to 
times long vanished, tell us, contrite souls here 
present, to whom He has granted the remission 
of innumerable, and possibly heinous, offences. 
Has He ever dealt with you harshly, or over- 
whelmed you with bitter reproaches, or scorned 
your easy tears, or taunted your frequent re- 
lapses and your hollow pledges ? Did He break 



THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS. 



55 



the bruised reed or quench the smoking flax ? 
Rather did He not welcome you, time and again, 
with the warm embrace of a father who loves his 
Absalom in spite of his undutifulness, or of a 
husband whose fond heart still cleaves to the 
love of his youth, though her infidelities be re- 
peated and notorious? 

Will you again inquire whether God loves men 
personally and whether He is interested in their 
individual joys and sorrows? What was His 
whole life from the manger to the Cross but 
one continued holocaust of love? He loved the 
good, to perfect them. He loved the wicked, 
to reclaim them. He loved the poor, the 
wretched, the outcast ; did He not love His 
very persecutors? He comforted the afflicted, 
He gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, 
speech to the dumb, vigor to the palsied, life to 
the dead. His divine Heart beat in unison with 
every effort which mankind made to raise them- 
selves out of the abyss into which the original 
sin had plunged them. With a far better right 
than that ancient heathen whose humane utter- 
ance has been so much applauded, He could 
affirm that " Every concern of each human be- 
ing awakened a corresponding interest in His 
heart." Men were found so perverse and blind 
as to hate their Incarnate Lord ; but their malice 
was not powerful enough to estrange his affec- 
tion from them. " When He was reviled, He 
did not revile; when He suffered, He threat- 
ened not." 

There is, however, one manifestation of the 
hidden character of God's love for man made by 
the Sacred Heart of Jesus to which I wish, in a 
special manner, to draw your attention. As we 
all know but too well, God has uttered a decree 



THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS. 



unalterable that sin shall ever bear its perpetrator 
bitter fruit. " The wages of sin is death;" and 
in executing this law the Almighty moves with 
the calm inexorability of fate. For six thousand 
years the children of Adam have been sinking 
into their graves in rapid succession, in conse- 
quence of the sin of their first father. For the 
same space of time, the reprobates have been 
cast into endless torments in punishment of their 
own misdeeds. In neither instance is there any 
indication or possibility of God's relenting. Now 
we may ask : Does it grieve the Almighty to be- 
hold the miserable fate of His creatures? Of 
course, we are certain that He takes no pleasure 
in the destruction of the living. " For He 
created all things that they might be ; and He 
made the nations of the earth for health/' " He 
wills not the death of the sinner;" and He gives 
to each soul abundant means of salvation. But, 
I would ask, does He feel what I may call pity, 
or sympathy, for the fate of those whom He 
justly condemns? A philosopher would be likely 
to answer that, in such cases, pity, or sympathy, 
would be a weakness incompatible with the in- 
finite perfections of the Deity. But the history 
of our tender-hearted Jesus is a far safer revela- 
tion of God's attributes than are the idle fancies 
of philosophers. Have we not seen Him shed 
tears over the hard fate which doomed Lazarus 
to dissolution and corruption, although that fate 
was but the execution of His own divine law ? 
And can we forget how bitterly He wept over 
faithless Jerusalem, against which He was soon 
to let loose Rome's irresistible legions? Hence 
we have learned that His justice no more re- 
strains His mercy than His mercy impedes the 
march of retribution. We have learned, more- 



THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS. 57 



over, that though He often is obliged to inflict 
punishment, yet He never rises to pronounce 
sentence upon the most unworthy that His kind 
Heart does not feel a pang. 

To sum up our remarks upon this head, we 
repeat that the Sacred Heart of Jesus is the vis- 
ible embodiment of God's tender affection for us. 
It is the common meeting-ground of the Creator 
and His creatures. It is the interpretation of 
things all but uninvestigable into the language of 
love understood by the rudest. If, then, the 
consideration of God's almighty power and eter- 
nal majesty overpower us, if the unsearchable- 
ness of His ways, and the severity and the stern 
inflexibility of His decrees terrify our souls, we 
can always flee for refuge to His opened Side, 
where we shall find all His attributes tempered 
and brought within the easy reach of our mind 
and heart. Hail to Thee, therefore, Sacred 
Heart of Jesus, Incarnate Love of God ! 



II. 

If now we turn to contemplate this Blessed 
Heart, inasmuch as it is a created Heart, the 
Heart of a Son of Adam who became obedient 
unto death, the Heart of One who, though the 
Greatest of men, though a deified Man, is still by 
nature a Man— see how there springs to our 
minds an entirely new train of thoughts. It is as 
if one, who has, after an arduous ascent, reached 
the summit of a lofty mountain, should unex- 
pectedly discover green fields and silvery streams 
stretching out in the valley beneath him. 
Hitherto we have been clambering among 



58 



THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS. 



rugged peaks, my brethren ; for we have been 
venturing to explore the mysterious recesses, 
the inaccessible heights and the awful depths of 
the Adorable Heart of our Incarnate God. 
What remains to be done is comparatively easy. 
We shall look upon the Heart of Jesus, Son of 
Man, and compare it with our own. For be not 
weary, if I repeat that it is not only the Heart of 
our God, it is also the Heart of our Brother It 
is a human Heart : it is a heart like ours. Like 
ours, did I say? Ah! how unlike ours! True, 
it is physically formed like ours. It beats and 
throbs like ours. But in that higher sense, in 
which we speak of the heart as the seat of the 
affections, and the centre of spiritual life and 
moral character, there is just resemblance enough 
between the Heart of Jesus and our hearts to 
bring out into relief the contrast between the 
spotless effulgence of His and the wretched 
deformity, vileness and degradation of ours. 
Such fraternity our hearts can claim with His- as 
the sand can claim with the crystal, or the clay 
w r ith the emerald, or the ignoble lump of coal 
with the lustrous diamond. The great Heart of 
Jesus appears in the full radiance of primeval 
grace and sanctity, such as the human heart was 
when God pronounced it good ; our poor hearts, 
deformed, scarred, and shriveled as they are by 
sin, present the pitiable spectacle of the havoc 
which has been wrought in this sublime work of 
the Almighty by the accumulated depravities of 
successive generations. 

Do not, then, judge of the capabilities of 
human nature by the ordinary specimens which 
you meet. Do not conclude, since men are 
proverbially hard-hearted, cold and selfish, that 
such was the case in the beginning, or that such 



THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS. 



59 



must needs be the case even now. We shall 
always be able to glory before God and His 
Angels in the Heart of Jesus, as the ornament 
and pride of our race — as the type and model of 
human perfection. It will always thrill our souls 
with delight to reflect that the only Act of ador- 
ation which the Blessed Trinity receives as fully 
adequate and worthy of Its Infinite Object, 
proceeds, not from the mighty intellect of an 
Angel or Archangel, but from the lowly human 
Heart of the Son of Man Our Blessed Re- 
deemer has in a great measure taken away the 
reproach which rested upon the seed of Adam. 
For what used to be said of man, or what, 
indeed, could be said of him, but that "the 
imagination and thought of his heart were prone 
to evil from his youth;" that " out of his heart 
came evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornica- 
tions, thefts, false testimonies, blasphemies ? " 
Thus our human nature was for ages the grief 
of Angels and the scorn of devils. But, thank 
God, it is not irremediably lost ; for lo ! the earth 
hath given a divine fruit : it has produced the 
Heart of Jesus, which has been the regenerating 
pattern of myriads of saintly hearts. What a 
mighty work ! What a transformation worthy of 
God's Omnipotence it was, my brethren, to take 
poor, wretched humanity out of the vilest depths 
of degradation, to deify it, and make it an object 
of adoration to the trembling seraphim. " Be ye 
perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect," was 
the command issued to human kind by One of 
themselves — by One who had actually attained 
that Infinite height of perfection, and who has 
left us in His blessed life a model which it is our 
duty to study and imitate. 

After experiencing, therefore, within you and 



6o THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS. 



about you, how vile and base the unregenerate 
heart is made by sin, turn, my Christian friends, 
to this glorious type of human perfection ; and 
see how noble, how God-like your poor heart of 
clay can become, if obedient to grace. There is 
no study so fruitful of holiness as this contempla- 
tion of what we are permitted to call the human 
virtues of the Heart of Jesus. No matter what 
may be your estate in life, what your duties, 
your difficulties, your temptations — this is the 
great school in which you are to learn to acquire 
virtue and to. vanquish vice. Here you will find 
precedents to direct your judgment and incen- 
tives to sanctity. The Heart of Jesus is the 
inexhaustible mine from which the long line of 
saints have drawn those brilliant gems which 
deck their imperishable crowns. In fact, what 
virtue do you feel the most urgent need of, my 
brethren? Is it divine charity? Then bring 
your cold heart into contact with this living coal 
of celestial fire. Is your heart proud or irasci- 
ble? Learn from Jesus to be meek and humble ; 
and learn, too, whatever virtue you may lack ; 
learn disinterestedness, learn chastity, learn 
purity of heart, learn to moderate your desires, 
learn to mortify your passions, learn to seek in all 
things not your own will, but the Adorable Will 
of God ; learn to despise riches, honors, pleas- 
ures ; learn to pass long hours and nights entire 
in prayer ; learn to make your whole life one 
act of adoration. 

Gladly would I enlarge upon these several 
topics, but I feel that I have already been 
enticed by the beauty of my theme into unrea- 
sonable length. Let us, therefore, sum up in a 
few words what the Holy Ghost has deigned to 
impart to us. We have seen that the Sacred 



THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS. 6 1 



Heart of Jesus, inasmuch as it is the Heart of 
our God, has let us into an acquaintance with 
our Infinite Creator and a familiarity with His 
attributes which we should otherwise never have 
attained. It has interpreted into a language 
intelligible to all of us heavenly secrets that had 
been hidden from the wisest of mortals. This 
same blessed Heart, inasmuch as it is a human 
Heart, the Heart of Him who does not disdain to 
be called our Brother, has taught us how sub- 
lime a handiwork of God our poor hearts of clay 
can be made by the renovating power of the 
Holy Ghost. 

This is the blended stream of blood and water 
which issues from the recesses of Christ's great 
Heart. O let us with love and fervor worship 
this masterpiece of God's mercy. It is the 
common Heart of God and man. It is the 
fountain of life to the Creator, and from it the 
mysterious fluid of God's grace comes thrilling 
through our veins. Oh, Blessed Heart of Jesus, 
may I ever derive my life-blood from Thee. 
May I live of Thy life, and grow more and more 
united to Thee. I adore Thee, Heart of Jesus, 
Son of the Living God. I adore Thee, I love 
Thee, and I long to imitate Thy virtues, Heart 
of Jesus, Son of Mary, model and glory of our 
common race. 

Heart of Jesus, burning with love for me, 
Inflame my heart with love for Thee. 



Amen. 



PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 



" Labor the more, that by good works you may make 
sure your calling and election. For doing these things, you 
will not sin at any time. For so an entrance will be minis- 
tered to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of 
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ." — II. Pet. i. io-ii. 

You throng about the Altar this evening, my 
brethren, for the purpose of returning thanks to 
Him Who has forgiven all your iniquities and 
healed all your diseases, Who has redeemed 
your life from destruction and crowned you 
with mercy and compassion. These have been 
days of special grace for this congregation. The 
Spirit of God has rested upon you and God has 
visited His people. Standing forth, therefore, in 
the newness of life, with the light of God's coun- 
tenance signed upon your foreheads, your hearts 
overflow with that serene joy which is the fruit of 
Divine Grace, and you call upon all creatures to 
rejoice with you. Well you may rejoice and be 
glad ; for a good w r ork has been begun in you. 
But do not, my dearly beloved, be so carried 
away by the happiness you now enjoy, as to 
fancy that nothing more remains to be done ; for 
between you and the goal of your eternal salva- 
tion there awaits you many a battle to be fought, 
many an ambush of the enemy to be avoided, 
much toilsome work to be accomplished. Your 
joy this evening would be fuller, were this the 
first time that God had ik brought you out of the 
pit of misery and the mire of dregs, 1 ' to set your 

62 



PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 



63 



feet upon a rock. (Ps. xxxix.) But, alas ! your 
inconstancy in the past must rest like a dark 
cloud upon your mind, boding evil for the future. 
With a monotonous regularity you have swung 
back and forth from virtue to vice, from vice to 
virtue. Ever and anon the Holy Ghost has 
passed through the midst of you, and there has 
been a great commotion. Inveterate sinners 
have burst open the graves in which their bad 
habits had buried them. The negligent were 
roused to fervor and shook off the dust which 
had accumulated on their souls. Inviolable 
fidelity was pledged to Almighty God and sin 
was solemnly renounced forever; But, too often 
this new-born fervor passed away with the occa- 
sion which evoked it. The drunkard returned to 
his poisoned cups ; the libertine wallowed once 
more in the mire ; your tears of repentance were 
speedily dried; your spasmodic efforts to live a 
life of holiness soon came to naught ; and the 
congregation became again, like the field de- 
scribed by the Prophet, " filled with bones 
exceeding dry." You will, of course, protest 
that you are now really in earnest ; that this 
time you have risen to fall no more. But this 
protestation you have made and forgotten so 
frequently that it has well-nigh lost all meaning 
on your lips. But remember, Dearly Beloved, 
that although you can continue thus, year* after 
year, to oscillate between the service of God and 
the bondage of Satan ; though you can rise and 
fall, sin, repent, relapse, with dreary alternation, 
yet die you can but once ; and it is not these 
ephemeral attempts at amendment but your 
condition at the last supreme moment which will 
determine your fate for all eternity. Instead, 
therefore, of lulling you to sleep by congratulat- 



6 4 



PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 



ing you upon your present happy state, I think 
it infinitely more salutary to impress upon you 
the painful truth, that it is in vain Almighty 
God has begun a good work in you unless He 
perfect it, in vain He grants to mortals the grace 
of conversion, unless He shall crown His mercies 
with the triumphant gift of final perseverance. 
O, let us, my brethren, in imitation of St. Paul, 
forgetting as well the gloomy past as the 
brighter present, stretch forward to the great, 
uncertain future, the terrible unknown future 
which is pregnant with our eternal destiny. Are 
we finally, when all shall be said and done, when 
our wayward lives shall have run their halting 
course, — are we eventually to be saved or to be 
damned? O where is the wise one among you ? 
where is the scribe ? Let him stand forth and 
answer this all-engrossing question. And if he 
cannot answer for others, let him, at least, 
answer it for himself. But if we must all ac- 
knowledge our total ignorance of a mystery of 
which God jealously guards the secret, whence, 
my brethren, arises this over-confidence which 
lures you into thinking that you have no reason 
to fear? Of this alone we are made certain that 
every one who has risen from sin shall be saved 
if he persevere imto the end. I purpose, therefore, 
to speak to you this evening, as briefly as the 
subject will admit, about the divine gift of 
Perseverance. I shall consider it under the two- 
fold aspect in which theology presents it to us ; 
first, inasmuch as it is a pure, unmeritable grace 
of God ; secondly, inasmuch as it is the reward of 
our own strenuous endeavors. The fruit of our 
reflections shall be, with God's grace, to arouse 
us to more earnest labor for the purpose of mak- 
ing sure our calling and election. We shall thus 



PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 



65 



banish forever from our souls that presumptuous 
feeling of security which holds us in baneful 
lethargy, and begin to work out our salvation, as 
Holy Writ enjoins, "with fear and trembling." 

I. " Salvation is of the Lord," sings the Psalm- 
ist ; and lest we might be tempted to believe that 
it is only the sinner who stands in need of Divine 
mercy, he tells us again that the saints too owe 
their salvation to the grace of God. " The salva- 
tion of the just is of the Lord." Whether, there- 
fore, you be the vilest of sinners or the holiest 
of saints, you are alike thrown upon the bounty 
of God, in whom is placed all hope of salvation. 
Woe to the man who loses sight of this funda- 
mental truth ! Woe to him who puts his trust 
in anything else but the bountiful mercy of his 
Redeemer! Now tell us, brethren, what are the 
grounds of your confidence? Are you perchance 
flattering yourselves that your present possession 
of sanctifying grace places God under any obliga- 
tion of maintaining you in that blessed state ? 
Pernicious folly! "For what doth it profit 
God," says the book of Job, " if thou be just ; or 
what dost thou give Him, if thy way be un- 
spotted ? " Are you founding your hopes upon 
good works, heroic deeds of virtue performed in 
the past ? But these good works are not yours, 
they are the offspring of God's grace. " What hast 
thou that thou hast not received?" thunders the 
Apostle ; " and if thou hast received, why dost 
thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?" (1 
Cor. iv. 7.) "Your glorying is not good." You 
are striving to erect a tower of Babel against God 
with materials of His own creating. No, brethren, 
in our effort to ascend the holy mountain, we must 
ever remember our native nothingness, we must 
bear deeply engraven on our memory the wor4§ 
I 



66 



PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 



of Christ: " Without me you can do nothing." 
He does not say, remarks St. Augustine, "with- 
out me you can do but little ; " but nothing, 
absolutely nothing. 44 How then," says St. 
Cyprian, " can we glory, since we possess nothing 
of our own ? " The only thing about us which is 
entirely ours, is the formidable array of our sins. 
Away, then, with the pride of the Pharisee, away 
with the haughty self-worship of those who trust 
for salvation to the strength of their own right 
arm. As for us " our help is in the name of the 
Lord." We have no other claim on Him, but 
that appeal which our helpless misery makes to 
His tender Heart. We seek not justice when we 
draw near to His throne. God forbid ! we beg 
for mercy. " For He saith to Moses : 6 1 will 
have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I 
will show mercy to whom I will show mercy/ " 
(Rom. ix.) So then, argues the Apostle, "it is 
not of him that willeth or of him that runneth, 
but of God that showeth mercy." 

Now, brethren, let us in the light of these forc- 
ible passages of Scripture enter into a strict self- 
examination, for the purpose of finding out what 
are the grounds of that confidence we are all apt 
to cherish that we are destined to persevere to 
the end and be saved. If this confidence is well 
founded it is most salutary, for it is identical 
with the divinely-inspired virtue of Hope ; if not 
it is vain and pernicious, for we are building not 
upon the rock, but upon the sand. Some of you 
I fear, will find they are placing too much re- 
liance upon the steadfastness of their own will. 
In the exuberance of that spiritual joy which 
inundates their souls, and to which they proba- 
bly had long been strangers, they cannot con- 
ceive it possible that they shall ever give them- 



PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 67 



selves up again in voluntary thraldom to the 
vile pleasures the recollection of which fills their 
soul with shame and disgust. O frail, wavering, 
treacherous human will! It is not in thy nature to 
cling for long either to good or evil. Lean not 
upon such a staff, my brethren, unless you have 
quite forgotten how often in the past your good 
resolutions were shattered at the first assault of 
Satan. 

Others there are who make the fatal error of 
basing their confidence of persevering upon the 
natural uprightness of their disposition. Like 
the Wise Man, they have " received a good 
soul." They are, almost without an effort, 
chaste, honest, temperate. They practise the 
natural virtues ; they have never been rudely 
tempted ; and they are not apprehensive of any 
danger in the future. These deluded souls, my 
brethren, are not Christians, but Pharisees. 
They are building upon the sand ; for they are 
building not on the merits of the Blood of Christ 
and the mercies of their Heavenly Father, 
but on their own foolish self-sufficiency ; and 
were they guilty of no other sin, this of itself 
would separate them eternally from God. 

Still others found their hopes on the supposi- 
tion that their trials are all past. They have 
fought a good fight in their day ; and having 
arrived at the evening of life, they deem them- 
selves justified in laying aside their armor, re- 
laxing their vigilance, and indulging feelings 
of easy security. Inexplicable rashness ! The 
battle still rages around them, nay, within them ; 
and no one can pronounce himself safe until his 
life-long combat has been crowned by a victori- 
ous death. Assure yourselves, my brethren, that 
whatever period of life, or whatever degree of 



68 



PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 



sanctity, or whatever store of merits you may 
have attained, you are still as utterly dependent 
on the gracious bounty of God, as you were in 
the beginning of your career. If God, in his 
unsearchable judgments, withdrew His protect- 
ing hand from you, this instant you would sink 
back into the pit of misery and the mire of dregs. 
It is appalling to reflect how suddenly the 
mightiest and the most highly favored can be 
brought low. Consider the Archangel Lucifer, 
the resplendent Morning Star, the nearest of all 
creatures to God in splendor of intellect. Yet 
he kept not his place, but fell from the summit 
of his glory into the bottomless pit, changed in 
one instant into the hideous demon. And as for 
our poor human kind, are not our annals strewn, 
generation after generation, with the wrecks of 
souls that began well, promised bright things, ac- 
complished great things, and were, — some imme- 
diately, others in mid career, others in sight of the 
haven, — miserably ruined? Read the fate which 
threatens all of us in the history of King Saul. 
Did ever a career open more auspiciously than 
his? At his first appearance upon the sacred 
page, he is pronounced by the Holy Ghost " a 
choice and goodly man ; " " and there was not 
among the children of Israel a goodlier man than 
he." Grace after grace is showered upon him 
from above, till the peasant boy transformed into 
the powerful monarch, is seated upon the throne 
of a great and independent nation. Then comes 
the strange turning-point of his history. The fa- 
vored one becomes estranged from God. Each 
sin, each rash act which he commits, is forth- 
with visited with severe punishment ; and we are 
forced to follow the downward course of this 
" choice and goodly man," until we meet him 



PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 



6 9 



at length dying an outcast, impenitent, on the 
point of his own sword. A frightful illustration 
of those words of Ezechiel : " If the just man 
turn himself away from his justice and do 
iniquity, shall he live? all his justices which he 
hath done, shall not be remembered ; in the pre- 
varication by which he hath prevaricated, and in 
his sin which he hath committed, in them he 
shall die/' (Ez. xviii. 24). Thus too Judas fell 
from the sublime dignity of the Apostolate and 
went to the place which was now his own, the 
eternal home of adulterers and murderers. Thus 
Solomon fell in spite of his wisdom ; thus Sam- 
son fell in spite of his strength. Thus untold 
millions have fallen in every age, after starting 
out well with promise fair. What was lacking 
to all these wretched beings? But one grace, 
my brethren, for they seemed to possess all 
other graces. They lacked the grace of perse- 
verance. God, whose ways are as inscrutable as 
they are just and holy, after granting them 
many signal favors, after cleansing their souls, 
after exalting them in the sight of men and 
angels, suddenly drew back, refused to favor 
them any further and exacted condign punish- 
ment for their transgressions which now rapidly 
increased in number and heinousness. Then the 
light fled from their eyes ; strength forsook their 
limbs ; they tottered, and fell ; and irreparably 
great was the fall thereof. 

The circumstance, therefore, my brethren, that 
God has been gracious with you, patient with 
you, pleased with you heretofore, gives you no 
warrant for presuming that He will continue to 
be gracious, patient, pleased unto the end. He 
is ever the supreme, the infinitely free Lord and 
Master of His creatures, responsible for His ac- 



70 



PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 



tions and judgments to no one. Engrave this 
truth upon your inmost soul, my brethren, that 
as a special grace was needed to raise you from 
sin to justice, so a special grace will be needed 
to raise you from justice to glory. This latter 
grace is styled the grace of Final Perseverance ; 
and it is granted, not to all the faithful — for 
many are called and few are chosen — but to 
those only whom God has predestined to eternal 
life. It is a terrible, but a chastening thought, 
my brethren, that neither we, nor our dearest 
friends, nor our Angel Guardian, nor our loving 
Mother, Mary, nor any one save the All-knowing 
God possesses the knowledge of our ultimate 
destiny. We do not indeed know whether we 
are at the present moment worthy of love or 
hatred. How then can we know what shall be 
our condition to-morrow, or next year, or at the 
awful moment of death? "Your glorying, 
brethren, is not good." Your presumption is 
insane. Fall on your knees, and adore the 
supreme Majesty of God ! 

To show how completely we are thrown upon 
the tender mercies of God let us, with due rev- 
erence, examine His conduct towards His elect. 
By a study of Scripture we discover four several 
ways in which God is said to have granted to 
different souls the gift of Final Perseverance. 
Not that we pretend to confine His power to cer- 
tain determined conditions or to unveil the secrets 
of His counsels, but in order that the contempla- 
tion of what appears on the surface of His de- 
crees may give us some insight into the nature 
of their unfathomable depths. We find, there- 
fore, in Holy Writ four different classes or cate- 
gories of chosen souls. 

I. Some, we are told, were saved because God 



PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 



71 



forestalled temptation, and hastened to take 
them out of this wicked world before its corrupt- 
ing influence had been brought to bear upon 
them. It is thus He bestows His mercy on those 
happy infants who are carried from the baptismal 
font to the tomb, or on the young man or maiden 
who is taken away in the flow r er of unsullied 
innocence. We know how the worldly-minded 
commiserate the fate of- such a one, and how they 
shed upon his coffin silly tears that were better 
reserved to bewail their own sins. But hear how 
differently, how triumphantly the Holy Ghost 
speaks of him. " He pleased God and was be- 
loved ; and living among sinners, he was trans- 
lated. He ,was taken away lest wickedness 
should alter his understanding, or deceit beguile 
his soul. For the bewitchment of vanity ob- 
scureth good things, and the wandering of 
concupiscence overturneth the innocent mind. 
Being made perfect in a short space, he fulfilled a 
long time. For his soul pleased God ; therefore, 
he hastened to bring him out of the midst of in- 
iquities. But the people see this and understand 
not, nor lay up such things in their hearts." (Wis. 
iv.) No, the people understand not this, but we, 
my brethren, illumined now by heavenly grace 
and looking back with horror upon our mis-spent 
lives, we can envy the lot of those favored souls 
who have been crowned without a struggle, who 
in a few years, often in a few hours, have lived a 
long life and persevered to the end. " For ven- 
erable old age is not that of long time, nor 
counted by the number of years, but the under- 
standing of a man is gray hairs, and a spotless 
life is old age." O, brethren, there is such a 
thing as living too long. There is such a thing 
as outliving your sanctity, your virtue, your 



72 PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 



honor. There is such a thing, and every new day 
furnishes fresh illustrations of the danger, as dis- 
gracing and stultifying the glorious achievements 
of youth by the wretched apostacy of gray hairs. 
Who then, my friends, since every day added to 
our lives threatens new perils to our salvation, 
who is so foolish as to wish for himself or his 
loved ones a prolongation of this dismal pilgrim- 
age ? If you enjoy the testimony of a good con- 
science, pray rather to be dissolved at once and 
be safe in the arms of Christ. But this we all 
beg of Thee, O Lord : if in Thy wisdom Thou 
foreseest that a day shall come when, if we are 
still in life, we shall fall from grace, tarry not, 
but forestall our enemy. Cut the thread of our 
lives and bring us to Thee on the eve of that 
fatal day, that thus we may have persevered to 
the end. We shall have lived long enough, 
whether the world shall account us young or 
old, for he who survives to fall into sin relapses 
into a state far worse than unbaptized infancy. 

2. There are others to whom God has vouch- 
safed this same great gift of Perseverance after a 
nobler manner. Instead of taking them out of 
this evil world, He has plunged them into the 
thickest of the danger. He made them pass 
through fire and water. He suffered Satan to 
exhaust all his wiles and violence upon them. 
But, meanwhile, He so clothed them about with 
^race and fortitude that the evil one met with 
signal discomfiture. O, then, doth the Om- 
nipotent mercy of God shine out in its fullest 
brillancy when these Daniels come forth from 
the jaws of the lions untouched, these Abdenagos 
from the fiery furnace unscathed, these Jobs 
from their fierce ordeals unconquered, these Su- 
sannas from their fearful trials unsullied. To 



PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 



73 



these glorious servants of God it is given to sing 
that noblest of canticles (Ps. cxxiv.) " Blessed be 
the Lord Who hath not given us to be a prey to 
their teeth. Our soul hath been delivered as a 
sparrow out of the snare of the fowler. The 
snare is broken, and we are delivered. Our help 
is in the name of the Lord Who made heaven 
and earth." This is the grace which formed and 
adorned the great saints of God in their several 
generations — the martyrs, the confessors, the vir- 
gins ; the Lawrences, the Anthonys, the Agneses 
and Cecilias, investing weak fiesh and blood with 
a glory which excites the admiration of the angels 
of heaven. Now, brethren, you who glory in 
words and not in deeds, do you claim a share in 
the triumphs of the brave soldiers of Christ ? 
Are you prepared for the racks, the scourges, the 
gridirons of the martyrs? for the self-imposed 
penances, the fasts, the vigils, the mortifications of 
the confessors? Have you no apprehension that 
there is in store for you some trial which will 
sorely test your strength and possibly lay you 
low? It is, indeed, our duty, relying on God's 
grace and Hi-s mercies, to face our unknown trials 
with courage and confidence; but it is equally 
our duty to be mindful that God's grace and His 
mercies are denied to the proud and given to 
those only who feel that of themselves they can 
do nothing. I fear greatly, brethren, conjecturing 
from our past lives, that we are not destined to ac- 
complish heroic deeds for Christ. We have given 
no indication that we possess the qualities of the 
saints, and if to be saved, we had to be submitted 
to the rude tests which the saints endured but 
few of us would see salvation. But praised be 
our Merciful God, He does not require of all His 
servants that they should be Lawrences and 



74 



PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 



Cecilias. He deigns to retain in His service be- 
sides the legion of His brave soldiers, a vast body 
of weaklings, good for little else but to swell the 
number of His elect. I mean there is a third 
category of souls that are saved ; there is a third 
manner in which God grants the gift of Persever- 
ance. 

3. A great number, therefore, are made to 
persevere in grace, because God knowing their 
frailty, sends His Angel before them, carefully to 
remove all stumbling-blocks out of their way. 
They are saved from falling, because they are, in 
a great measure, saved from temptation. By a 
special dispensation of Providence they pass 
through this turbulent battle-field of the world, 
living a charmed life. Thousands of souls, as 
brave and virtuous as they, fall about them, on 
the right hand and the left, pierced by the arrows 
of Satan; but they run their quiet, peaceful 
course untouched. The shield of Divine Favor 
compasses them, and the evil shall not come 
nigh to them* This may not be a very exalted 
degree of sanctity, my brethren ; for the soldiers 
whom a commander so sedulously guards from 
danger, cannot be of much account. But there 
is glory in being even " an abject in the house of 
my God ; " and Christ, to teach us humility, has 
commanded us, not to pray for heroic fortitude 
in temptation, but rather not to be led into 
temptation at all. Well were it for us, my breth- 
ren, if the worst that could be said of us were 
that we are of little worth. But alas ! the major- 
ity of us must confess that our only hope of 
being admitted into the kingdom of God is based 
upon the revealed truth that besides these three 
classes of rescued souls, there is still another class, 
the class of the Magdalens and repentant thieves. 



PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 



75 



4. Strange as it seems that God should be- 
stow His mercy on weak and valueless souls, how 
much stranger it seems that He should make 
room in His kingdom for vile deserters and 
traitors ! Yet such is the case. In Heaven 
there are many mansions. Mingled with the 
angels and saints, with the innocents and the 
martyrs, there dwells and reigns a vast host of 
souls that once and again had basely betrayed 
their God and trampled on His holy law. " If 
any man sin," says St. John, " we have an advo- 
cate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Just." 
Were not this hope laid up in our bosom, which 
of us, brethren, should not despair? This last 
class of predestined souls is, therefore, the one to 
which the greater number of us must belong, if, 
indeed God has determined to show the riches of 
His glory on us, as vessels of mercy. But reflect 
how utterly sin throws us upon the mercy of 
God. The soul that commits a mortal sin ren- 
ders itself thereby liable to sentence of eternal 
death. Its fate is no longer in its hand in any 
shape ; but is lodged in the justice or the mercy 
of the Living God. He can deal with it as in 
His supremacy pleases Him best. If He 
pardons it He is clement ; if He condemns it, 
He is not unjust. Remember how differently 
He acted with two Apostles who sinned on the 
self-same evening. St. Peter sinned, and was 
pardoned. Judas sinned and was forever lost. 
How often in the past, my brethren, your fate lay 
quivering in the balance ! How often when you 
dared defy your Almighty Creator have not the 
eyes of your Guardian Angel, of your Patron 
Saint, of your Immaculate Queen been anxiously 
and timorously turned towards the countenance 
of your injured Lord, to learn whether this new 



76 PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 



insult would be condoned, or whether the cup of 
bitterness was filled to overflowing. Happily for 
you, mercy prevailed. The stern law of retribu- 
tion was suspended in your behalf. You re- 
ceived time and grace to repent. You sued for 
forgiveness, and were re-admitted to life and 
favor. But whom shall we praise for this happy 
result, the 'wretched sinner or the long-suffering 
Redeemer ? 

If then, my brethren, you are predestined to 
life everlasting, by whatever method your salva- 
tion is to be wrought out, to whatever category of 
redeemed souls you shall belong, — whether you 
are to rank among those whom God has hastened 
to bring out of the midst of iniquities before the 
fatal day of temptation arrived, or among those 
who have been strengthened by extraordinary 
aids to withstand terrible trials, or among those 
whose lines have fallen in pleasant places and the 
current of whose lives ran smoothly, or among 
those whose wretched falls have been followed by 
generous pardon, or lastly among those who have 
been saved by a dispensation in which two or 
more of these methods were blended, in whatso- 
ever manner your salvation is to be secured, you 
will owe your success to the special favor of your 
God who loved you first, and who without any 
merit of yours, bestowed on you the great gift of 
Final Perseverance. 

You understand now why the wisest of men 
pronounced that " all things are kept uncertain 
for the time to come." You understand why 
Holy Church has anathematized the fools who 
rashly said, " We have it in our power inde- 
pendently of a special grace of God, to merit per- 
severance to the end. You understand why David, 
sobered and humbled by a shameful fall, lived 



PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 



77 



ever afterwards with eyes lifted up to Him who 
dwells in Heaven, from whom he was sensible his 
help must come. " Behold as the eyes of servants 
are on the hands of their masters, ... so are our 
eyes unto the Lord our God, until He have 
mercy on us." (Ps. cxxii). 

II. I have already trespassed too long upon your 
patience, my brethren ; but if I stopped here, I 
should only have enounced a half-truth, and in 
consequence you might go away impressed with 
the notion that since "salvation is of the Lord," 
nothing which you can do can have any influence 
upon your ultimate destiny. This would be a 
most fatal error ; for the same holy religion 
which teaches us that final perseverance is the 
pure mercy, the unmeritable gift of God, enjoins 
us to labor the more that by good works we may 
make sure our calling and election. Parallel 
with the texts of holy writ which reserve to God 
alone the glory of our salvation run other texts 
just as numerous and as forcible which demand 
•from us an earnest co-operation. The mystery 
of our salvation is, therefore, deep beyond scru- 
tiny. It is as difficult for us satisfactorily to 
reconcile these two truths, first, that God is the 
sole author of our salvation, and secondly, that 
He will reward us according to our works, as it is 
to reconcile the Unity of God with His Blessed 
Trinity, or the foreknowledge of God with our 
free-will. Yet we must hold fast to all these 
sacred truths. While it is certain, therefore, that 
all the glory of our salvation belongs to Him 
who from all eternity, we trust, has predestined 
us to life everlasting, it is equally certain that if 
we are lost all the blame will attach to ourselves. 
To deny the former of these truths would be to 
fall into the heresy of the Pelagians, who attrib- 



73 



PERSEVERANCE IX GRACE. 



uted to their own efforts the successful issue of 
life. To deny the latter would be to fall into 
the impious heresy of Calvinism, which by de- 
stroying our free agency makes God responsible 
for man's sins in this world and his eternal misery 
in the next. But, thank God, my brethren, we 
are neither Pelagians nor Calvinists. Leaving to 
learned theologians the task of endeavoring to 
comprehend divine mysteries, we enter upon the 
battle of life with as much diffidence of self 
as if everything depended on the mercy of God, 
and yet with as much zeal and energy, as if 
everything had to be achieved by our unaided 
strength. The fact that we cannot be saved 
without a special, unmeritable grace of God does 
not unnerve us. No, that is not the cause of our 
trembling. We know our Dear Redeemer too 
well to doubt His love. He wills all men to 
be saved, and His will is unchangeable. It is 
our own fickle will that is ever prone to betray 
and ruin us. Be not solicitous, therefore, my 
brethren, about God's holy decrees. Look well 
to yourselves, for within your own soul is the 
source of weakness. That will of yours which 
this evening seems unalterably fixed in good 
may change to-morrow and deliberately enter 
into a covenant with death. 

From the throne of His mercy, Christ sol- 
emnly repeats to us that injunction which sums 
up our duties in two words: "Watch and 
pray." Unceasing vigilance will enable us to 
shun all unnecessary temptations : humble prayer 
will obtain for us God's help to overcome those 
which are unavoidable. What avenue of assault 
is left open to Satan by the soul to which habit 
has made it almost natural to hearken dilio*entlv to 
the voice of conscience, to keep a constant watch 



PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 



79 



over all its impulses, to walk cautiously and 
circumspectly, ever studying the wiles of the 
enemy and which fortifies its vigilance with 
earnest prayer? Look back upon your past 
lives, my brethren, and you will confess that all 
your falls have been directly chargeable to your 
neglect of this admonition of Jesus Christ. Your 
fervor gradually cooled ; you curtailed your pray- 
ers ; you began to abandon this and that special 
exercise of piety. Growing weary of this con- 
stant watching against an invisible foe, your eyes 
grew heavy for sleep. You allowed yourselves 
dangerous self-indulgences : you began to dally 
with sin, until you lost horror for it. You grew 
restive under the stern, uncompromising rebukes 
of conscience. Meanwhile Satan was quietly 
biding his time, waiting for his opportunity, 
which he foresaw would not long tarry. The 
fatal moment arrived. The evil one made one 
vigorous assault, and you fell most wretchedly. 
The temptation, you say, was violent ; but if 
you had not sunk into this state of spiritual 
exhaustion, you would have brushed it aside 
with the strength of a Samson. My brethren, 
you were undone long before the final attack 
was made upon you. It had become a mere 
question of time and circumstances when and 
how your unsubstantial virtue should sink to the 
ground. Beware the beginnings of evil ; beware 
lukewarmness in piety; beware the first symp- 
toms of estrangement from God. It very sel- 
dom, perhaps it never happens, that a soul 
precipitates straightway from the pinnacle of 
sanctity into the abyss of mortal sin. The subtle 
fiend leads us to eternal ruin by almost insensible 
gradations. One step follows another so easily, 
that the final, the irreparable mis-step seems but 



8o 



PERSEVERANCE IN GRACE. 



the natural sequence of those which preceded 
it. 

Awake, then, brethren, from the delusion that 
your salvation is assured, and that nothing 
further remains to be done. If you have risen 
from sin, labor the more that you may not 
relapse. If you have done great things already, 
labor the more that you may not lose the fruit of 
your labors. If you have grown gray in the 
service of God, labor the more, for your time 
is growing short, and the issue of your life-long 
combat is imminent. To all, therefore, I say 
with the chief of the Apostles : " Labor the more 
that by good works you may make sure your 
calling and election. For doing these things you 
will not sin at any time. For so an entrance 
will be ministered to you abundantly into the 
everlasting kingdom of Our Lord and Saviour 
Jesus Christ." Amen. 



ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST. 



"The disciple whom Jesus loved; who also leaned on 
his breast at supper."—; John xxi. 20. 

How ineffably sweet has been the lot of the 
illustrious saint whom it is your special privilege, 
my Brethren, to love and honor. Recti diligunt 
te, O great Evangelist : the righteous love thee, 
(Cant, i.) Jesus loved thee , Mary loved thee ; 
St. Peter loved thee ; and never has there been a 
Christian soul in the flower of her maiden virtue, 
that was not irresistibly drawn to thee, " to run 
after thee, to the odor of thy ointments." O 
Blessed Apostle, type of stainless purity and 
seraphic love, where is there on earth a heart so 
utterly depraved as not to kindle at the mention 
of thy name ? Yet where is the tongue so elo- 
quent, as fitly to translate into words the tender 
feelings which the contemplation of thy virtues 
awakens in our soul ? How heavy is the task, my 
dearly beloved, which your zeal for the glory of 
your patron saint imposes on the preacher ! and 
how cold and feeble you will pronounce my 
words to be, viewing them, as you will, in the 
light of your ardent affection for the Beloved 
Disciple. Nevertheless, I will not despond ; but 
trusting to your pious prayers, and to the gracious 
intercession of the saint himself, who, for all his 
greatness is so gentle and compassionate, I shall 
endeavor to say something which, however unwor- 
thy it may be of him, will yet, if you receive it 
kindly, accrue to the advantage to your souls. I 
6 81 



82 ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST. 



shall begin with a brief sketch of his blessed 
career. 

St. John, son of Zebedee and Salome, and 
brother to St. James the Greater, was born in 
Bethsaida of Galilee, five or six years after the 
birth of our Saviour. The early years of the 
poor fisherman's son were spent in the humble 
task of assisting his father and his brother in win- 
ning a scanty livelihood from the bosom of Lake 
Genesareth. That he was destitute of secular 
learning, we should have readily surmised, even 
if St. Luke, had not informed us that he whose 
divine wisdom was destined to overthrow and 
supersede the idle dreams of ancient philosophy 
was, at his setting forth, proclaimed by men to be 
" illiterate and ignorant." (Acts iv. 13.) But 
when Jesus, walking by the inland sea of Galilee 
(Mat. iv. 18,) beheld the sun-browned youth of 
twenty-five sitting in a ship with Zebedee his 
father and James his brother, mending his net, 
our Blessed Lord, appreciating the unsuspected 
capabilities of his virgin intellect and his unsul- 
lied heart, invited him and his brother to ex- 
change their lowly employment for the God-like 
work of taking human souls in the tempestuous 
sea of a wicked world. Obedient to their Sav- 
iour's call, " they forthwith left their nets and 
followed him." Adopted into the Apostolic Col- 
lege, St. John soon endeared himself, by the child- 
like candor and sweetness of his disposition, to all 
his brethren, but especially to St. Peter, between 
whom and our saint there sprung up an intimate 
and life long friendship, characterized on the part 
of the older and more self-reliant Apostle by an 
almost paternal solicitude for the younger disciple, 
and on the part of St. John, by a corresponding 
filial deference to the "age, the authority, and the 



ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST. 83 



personal excellencies of the Vicar of Christ. But 
why should we dwell on minor conquests of love, 
when the Gospel assures us that he won the 
Heart of Jesus Christ, his God and Master? He 
was recognized as being in a special manner the 
" disciple whom Jesus loved/' How, indeed, how 
could the Divine Author and Fount of every 
chaste affection refrain from loving that innocent 
soul whose highest ambition it was to cling to 
him, to repose upon His breast, and to drink in 
with avidity the sacred truths which fell from 
His lips? Throughout the triumphs and the 
humiliations of our Saviour's public career, St. 
John was seldom absent from his indisputed sta- 
tion at his Master's side. He was specially 
chosen to witness the glories of the Transfigura- 
tion and likewise to be present at the adorable 
abasement of the Agony in the Garden. And 
when, at length, the awful day of the consumma- 
tion arrived ; when the other apostles fled ; when 
even St. Peter found the chalice of Christ too 
bitter to drink, St. John remained faithful unto 
the end. Regardless — -I had almost said, un- 
conscious — of the dangers which surrounded 
him, — he accompanied his Divine Master through 
all the stages of His Passion, sharing His oppro- 
brium and shame, until he stood with Mary at 
the foot of the Cross. O pattern of inviolable, 
disinterested friendship ! He can do but little to 
alleviate the torments of His Lord, for " the 
Scriptures must be fulfilled ; " but he can do all 
that it is allowed to a mortal man to do in this dire 
emergency, — he can compassionate Him. " Can 
you drink the chalice that I shall drink?" Jesus 
had asked the two brothers. " They say to him, 
We can." James, indeed is not ready to drink that 
chalice now ; he will fulfil his promise at a later 



84 ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST. 



period ; but John is ready, and with heroic forti- 
tude he drinks it down. And shall we say that 
the presence of the Beloved Disciple was of no 
service to his Master in His dying moments? 
You know better, my brethren. From your 
knowledge of the immeasurable love which Jesus 
cherished for his Mother, you feel that it would 
have pained Him more than the nails and 
scourges pained Him, had he been forced to leave 
this world without making some provision for 
Mary in her unutterable bereavement. But 
thanks to the constancy of St. John, He was 
spared this anguish. 6 1 O blessed among women," 
said Jesus, turning upon her a last fond look, " I 
do not leave thee utterly desolate. Behold a 
strong, protecting arm and a tender, filial heart." 
" Woman, behold thy son." " And, O, Beloved 
Disciple," He continued, "how can I in My pov- 
erty and abandonment reward thy unalterable 
fidelity ? Nothing is left to me now except her, 
whom I love more than all the world beside. 
Take her to thy home ; care for her, guard over 
her with filial devotion, for, Behold, she is thy 
Mother." " O Virgin Mother, the guardian and 
companion of my early years, and thou, O Virgin 
Disciple, the friend and solace of my later days, 
love each other out of the exuberance of the love 
you bear towards me." Thus a most sacred 
charge was confided to the keeping of St. John, 
and the first intimation was given to him, to be 
subsequently more clearly unfolded, that his 
apostolic labors were to be of a different nature 
from those of St. Peter and the other Apostles. 
" From that hour the Disciple took Mary to his 
own " home. What a blessed home that was, my 
brethren, which contained the two purest and 
most highly favored of God's creatures. Jesus 



ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST. 85 



was ever there in the midst of them, present in 
their thoughts and in their conversation, present 
in their memories of the past and in their antici- 
pations of the future. He was, moreover, present 
in a nobler, more substantial manner, when, each 
morning, St. John, exercising his priestly office, 
brought Him down from heaven upon the Altar, 
leaned again upon His breast, and gave him to 
His Mother, to be received once more into that 
chaste bosom in which He had become Incarnate. 

What did all this betoken, my brethren, but 
that our Saviour had destined St. John for a 
peculiar office in His Church, essentially different 
from the office of St. Peter, or of St. James, or 
of the other Apostles ? Although St. John was 
called to be an Apostle, a preacher, a bishop, a 
patriarch, a martyr ; yet it was his distinctive 
mission that he should continue to be that which 
he had hitherto been, the special friend of the 
Bridegroom. Whilst St. Peter and St. Paul and 
the others are actively traversing seas and deserts 
to win converts to the Gospel, it will be St. 
John's duty to build up the interior life of the 
Church, and to become a living model of Chris- 
tian perfection. His will be the part of Moses on 
the mountain, rather than that of Josue in the 
valley, of Mary at the feet of Jesus, rather than 
of Martha, solicitous about many things. It is 
thus St. Augustine interprets the passage of 
Scripture which the Church appoints to be read 
on the Feast of our Saint. Our Saviour, just 
before His ascension commits to St. Peter the 
care of His lambs and of His sheep. He pre- 
dicts for His Vicar a life of arduous toil, culmina- 
ting in a glorious martyrdom. Then, continues 
the Gospel, " Peter turning about saw that 
Disciple whom Jesus loved, following, who also 



86 



ST, JOHN THE EVANGELIST. 



leaned on His breast at supper, and said : Lord, 
who is he that shall betray Thee? (John xxi. 
20). Him therefore when Peter had seen, he 
saith to Jesus: Lord, and what shall this man 
do? Jesus saith to Him; So I will have him 
remain till I come, what is it to thee? Follow 
thou me." " Follow thou me whithersoever the 
impulse of my Spirit shall lead thee ; let him 
remain in quiet till I call him to his everlasting 
Home, Be thou the model of the active life ; 
let him remain the model of the contemplative." 
Then our Lord returned to the bosom of His 
Father, and the Apostles were once more dis- 
persed. It was not cowardice that scattered 
them now, but a fiery zeal for the propagation of 
the Gospel. With the rapidity of a whirlwind, 
" their sound went forth into ail the earth, and 
their words unto the ends of the world." From 
the banks of the Ganges, where St. Thomas 
toiled, to the western ocean which checked the 
triumphant progress of St. James, "there were 
no speeches nor languages where their voices 
were not heard." Foremost in the work, as 
might have been expected from his office and his 
character, was St. Peter, the chieftain of this 
sacred band, who carried the death-struggle 
against paganism into the very palace of the 
Caesars. Associated with him in his triumphs 
and his martyrdom was the great Doctor of the 
Gentiles, St. Paul. "Glorious Princes of the 
earth," sings the Church, " as they had loved 
each other during life, in death they were not 
divided." Thus the Apostles labored and their 
blood was shed in every region of the known 
world, so that before many years had elapsed, 
out of the whole Apostolic College there re- 
mained but St. John. You observe the fulfill- 



ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST. 



87 



merit of our Saviour's prophecy. St. John's 
career lacks the brilliant, sharp aggressiveness 
which characterized the careers of St. Peter and 
the others. His duty is to remain. After the 
death of Mary, we meet him in Ephesus, where 
St. Paul had already preached, and where St. 
Timothy ruled as Bishop. Here he lived in the 
Spirit, communing with Angels, foreseeing the 
things which were to happen, and feeding upon 
the treasured-up words of his Master, until his 
hairs turned white as snow, until he became the 
Venerable Elder, the sole relic among Christians 
of the early days, until men whispered to 
each other that he was destined ever to remain 
thus till the Lord should come again. Do not 
think, however, my brethren, that St. John was 
so wrapped up in the inner life, as to be indiffer- 
ent to the salvation of his fellow-men. It were 
strange indeed, if the Apostle of Charity were 
lacking in zeal. He was indefatigable in his 
Apostolic labors. He founded Churches ; he 
preached ; he confuted heresies ; in a word, he 
was a true apostle. But, primarily and character- 
istically, he was the Angel of Contemplation. 
When the occasion demanded it, he came among 
men ; but, as soon as possible, he went back 
to his beloved retirement, there to commune 
with the invisible world. It is strikingly char- 
acteristic of St. John's spirituality, that as he 
lived not and spoke not like other men, so 
neither did he suffer like other men. St. John is 
rightly honored as a martyr; he was plunged 
into a boiling chaldron ; he languished many 
years in exile on a barren island. But neither 
the chaldron nor the exile could disturb his 
angelic equanimity. He came forth from the 
boiling chaldron unharmed and invigorated, and 



88 ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST. 



the seclusion of banishment was grateful to him, 
as affording full leisure for quiet contempla- 
tion. It is also characteristic of him that his 
divine writings, — his Gospel, his Epistle, and 
his Apocalypse, — were not the spontaneous pro- 
ductions of his pen, but were elicited by the 
exigency of circumstances, or by the importuni- 
ties of his children, or by the express command 
of heaven. Thus he lived to a venerable old 
age, the pride, glory and model of the Christian 
world, patiently remaining until his Master 
should call for him, and breathing forth at inter- 
vals his constant longing to be reunited to the 
Friend of his youth, by that tender ejaculation, 
"Veni, Domine Jesu! Veni." Come, Lord 
Jesus! Come!" 

The first century of the Christian era had 
passed away before the long expected summons 
came ; and the angelic soul sped to its eternal 
home. 

Such, in brief outline, was the career on earth 
of the blessed saint whom we delight to honor, 
and whom it is our duty to imitate. Imitate ! 
you may say ; can we follow the eagle in his 
flight? can we live the life of an Angel? The 
model is too sublime, too unearthly. On the 
contrary, I do not think there is in the catalogue 
of saints the name of one whose virtues are sc 
domestic and so universally imitable as those 
of St. John. You will not, for example, find ii 
so easy to imitate St. Peter, whose distinguishing 
virtues were those of a commander, nor St. Paul, 
who was preeminently the missionary and the 
orator. But though St. John was orator, theolo- 
gian, missionary and bishop, yet his name is not 
associated in our minds with these exalted 
duties. The very essence of his character, — that 



ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST. 



8 9 



title with which his name is thoroughly identi- 
fied, — is that he is ever " the disciple whom 
Jesus loved." We can no more think of St. 
John without thinking of his blessed Friend and 
Master, than we can think of Mary without 
being carried on to think of her Divine Son. 
Mary and John are two saints whose prerogatives 
cannot otherwise be defined than by a direct 
reference to Jesus. Mary was created to be the 
mother of Jesus: John to be His friend. The 
essence of St. John's saintliness is, therefore, 
this intimate personal friendship which subsisted 
between him and his Master. To love Christ 
and to be loved by Christ, — this was the end 
of his creation and the law of his being. 
What a noble destiny ! to be born to love and to 
be loved by Jesus Christ, the Wisdom of God 
and the Saviour of men. But if this was St. 
John's destiny, it is no less your destiny, my 
brethren, and mine. St. John was, by excel- 
lence, that which it is the duty and the privilege 
of each of us to strive to be, the bosom friend of 
Our Lord Jesus. Never has this world pro- 
duced, never has her philosophy conceived, or 
her poetry fancied a friendship so holy,, so 
tender, so disinterested as that which bound 
John to Jesus and Jesus to his beloved disciple. 
And, O my brethren, what is the great purpose 
of your creation, if not that this same friendship 
should spring up and flourish between you and 
your Redeemer, that you should love Christ and 
.that Christ should love you? This is the sole 
standard by which you are to judge whether your 
life has been a success or an utter failure. The 
Christian who loves His Redeemer and who has 
the assurance of an upright conscience that his 
love is returned, enjoys a blessedness which 



go ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST. 



temporal advantages can do but little to aug- 
ment, and which persecutions, trials, disasters, 
avail not to destroy. But the soul which is not 
thus sustained, having swerved from the true 
course of happiness, must lead a meaningless, 
joyless existence over which worldly pleasures 
can cast but a grotesque and lurid glow. Be- 
hold, then the secret of that perennial charm 
which St. John's name possesses among Chris- 
tians. He is pronounced by Holy Writ to have 
attained in an eminent degree that love of Jesus 
which is the sole object of our aspirations. As 
the young painter then must love and imitate his 
Raphael, and the young poet his Homer, and 
the young orator his Demosthenes, and the 
novices in the other arts the masters and models 
of their several pursuits, so the Disciples of 
Christ are naturally drawn to love and imitate 
him who is pronounced to be the great master 
and pattern of Christian perfection. Assure 
yourselves, therefore, my brethren, that your 
destiny is identical with that of St. John. You 
are called to thjs same close fellowship with the 
Son of God. The Sacred Heart of Jesus is 
ardently yearning, to make each of you a beloved 
disciple. 

It is well for us my brethren, to dwell upon 
this truth ; for it is the very foundation of the 
Christian's hopes. Let me ask you, therefore, 
to compare St. John, before he knew his Lord, 
with St. John after he had leaned upon the 
Sacred Breast of Jesus. Compare the fisher- 
man's boy, as he sits in his father's ship, mending 
his net, his uncultured mind the while revolving 
such trivial thoughts as the profits of the last 
draught of fishes, or the prospects for the coming 
night, with the divine Theologian of Ephesus 



ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST. 



9* 



who discourses on the Eternal generation of the 
Word, or the Seer of Patmos who " in the Spirit 
on the Lord's day " contemplates the glories of 
the heavenly Jerusalem, and traces the history of 
the Church in her progress through the coming 
centuries. In this miraculous transformation of 
St. John you have an exemplification of a truth 
which reason and revelation are concordant in 
inculcating: that men become assimilated to the 
things which they love. " If thou lovest the 
earth, " says St. Augustine, " earth thou art ; if 
thou lovest God, I make bold to say it, thou art 
a god." Attach ourselves we must to some 
external object, my brethren, for we are not like 
Almighty God who is to Himself an all-sufficient 
fountain of happiness. We are too conscious of 
our native indigence to rest within ourselves ; 
hence our spirit wanders outside of itself in 
pursuit of some object which can satisfy its long- 
ings. Now it is precisely the object of our 
choice which determines our degradation or our 
exaltation. The sinner, says Holy Writ (Os. ix. 
io), " becomes as abominable as the things are 
which he loves.'' The miser is as sordid as his 
lucre ; the libertine as impure as his lusts ; the 
politician as paltry as the prizes he covets. O 
mystery of perverseness, that the vast majority 
of the human kind should throw away their 
hearts upon base, unworthy objects, while it is in 
the power of all to be transformed into children 
of God by union with Jesus Christ the Eternal 
Word ! Consider, too, my brethren, that Jesus 
longs for your love more eagerly than you can 
imagine. He, who in His Divine Essence is 
self-sufficient, — for He is our God and He has no 
need of us or of our goods — yet deigned, in 
assuming a human nature, to take upon himself 



9 2 



ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST. 



together with it the infirmities and limitations 
inherent in it. Among other laws to which He 
submitted, was that primitive law of our being, 
that "it is not good for man to be alone." He 
of all men, longs for friends and lovers. His 
desire to love and to be loved is boundless. It 
embraces the whole human family, — Judas, 
whom He kissed, and the thief whom He par- 
doned, as well as that innocent saint who leaned 
upon His breast at the Last Supper. Why He 
should care for our love, why He should trouble 
Himself about us, is but one phase of the 
incomprehensible mystery : What urged Him to 
become Incarnate? 

You have then, my brethren, in the Sacred 
Heart of Jesus that which poor, restless human- 
ity has been in quest of since the creation of the 
world, a worthy object upon which to bestow 
your love, — an object which can fill every need 
and satisfy every aspiration of the soul. Can 
your intellect conceive, or your imagination 
paint, a nobler type of the perfect Man than St. 
John, that poor fisherman's boy transformed by 
the power of divine love into the wisest, the 
holiest, the happiest of mortals? This ennobling 
influence of the love of Jesus is discernible, not 
only in the great saints of God, but also in due 
proportion in His humbler servants. You must 
have had frequent opportunities for observing 
this in the lives of the religious Christians about 
you, — happy you are, if you have experienced it 
in yourselves. You cannot but have noticed 
that progress in piety, progress in union with 
Jesus, is invariably attended with a proportionate 
development of the nobler faculties of the soul. 
By leaning on that Divine Breast, the dullest 
intellect becomes acute ; the unsteadiest will 



ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST. 



93 



becomes strengthened ; the feverish turmoil of 
the passions is calmed ; and the eye of the 
reason is purified. If, as philosophers tell us, 
friendship implies a community of goods be- 
tween friends, what friendship can be more 
perfect than that which exists between our Lord 
Jesus and the Christian soul? This communica- 
tion of goods implies self-sacrifice, a complete 
surrender and oblivion of self in the interest 
of the beloved object. Now go back to your 
model; re-examine the love of Jesus and His 
Disciple. You will find that the self-immolation 
of John to His Blessed Lord was total, that of 
Jesus to John was infinite. From the first 
moment when this new supernatural love took 
possession of St. John until he closed his eyes in 
death, it reigned supreme within his breast ; it 
absorbed all the energies of his soul. Every 
thought of his mind, every movement of his will, 
every pulsation of his heart, every word, every 
action, was animated by it, and busied about it. 
There were no reservations necessary ; and, so 
thoroughly had love seized upon him, no reserva- 
tions were conceivable. His love was so bound- 
less, that, if its object had been any other than 
his God, it would have been sheer idolatry. It 
was so vehement, that if Jesus had not been the 
Alpha and Omega, the Author and Finisher of 
his happiness, it would, like excessive worldly 
love, have destroyed his peace of mind, and left 
him restless and miserable. You see what St. 
John gave to Jesus ; he gave all that he had, all 
that he was. And did our Lord, who had 
inspired this spirit of self-sacrifice, allow himself 
to be overcome by his Disciple in a contest of 
generosity? No, indeed! If He received a 
human gift, He returned a Divine. In recom- 



94 ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST. 



pense for the finite, he gave the Infinite. He gave 
Himself to His Disciple, as He is willing to give 
Himself to each of you, with a munificence that 
was possible only because He is Almighty. He 
has no reserves with His faithful disciples. " I 
have called you friends/' he says, " because all 
things whatsoever I have heard of My Father, I 
have made known to you." (John xv. 15.) 
There are no bounds to His love; for, " greater 
love than this no man hath, that a man lay down 
his life for his friends." His love is stronger 
than death ; for in His wisdom He has dis- 
covered a way of loving His own and uniting 
Himself to His own, unto the end of the time. 
Such are the prodigies wrought by Infinite love 
when it is united with Infinite Power. O, if you 
are wise, my brethren, you will sweep all un- 
worthy affections from your heart to make room 
for this heavenly fire which Christ has come to 
spread upon the earth. It is divine ; it is eternal. 
Once enkindled in the human heart, it is its 
nature to burn forever there with increasing 
energy: " for I am sure that neither death, nor 
life, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things 
present, nor things to come, nor might, nor 
height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall 
be able to separate us from the love of God, 
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Rom. viii. 
39.) Earthly love, no matter how intense or 
holy, is, like every thing earthly, destined sooner 
or later to die the death. Absence, satiety, 
misunderstandings, a change in worldly condi- 
tion, a thousand circumstances intervene to chill 
and quench the most ardent of human friend- 
ships. Even those sacred ties with which 
nature binds the family together, are they not 
tainted with the fatal curse of our mortality? 



ST. JOHN THE EVANGELIST. 



95 



The bond between parent and child, so tender, so 
noble, has its day. It increases; waxes strong: 
and is afterwards naturally weakened, when the 
child grows to maturity, and enters upon new 
relations by the formation of a more intimate 
bond. And the most sacred of all human ties, 
that of man and wife made one flesh, is it not 
eventually dissolved by the iron hand of death ? 
The survivor may pass to a new alliance. " If 
the husband die " says St. Paul, " the wife is at 
liberty ; let her marry to whom she will." Be 
not grieved, my dearly beloved, that such is the 
case ; but recognize the fact that no love is 
immortal, save that of Him who has said, " I 
have loved thee with an everlasting love." Raise 
yourselves above the condition of mortality, 
by attaching yourselves with St. John to Jesus, 
who has said " Him that cometh to me, I will 
not cast out : " (John vi. 37) and " No man 
shall pluck him out of my hand/' (John x. 28.) 

O Beloved Apostle, thou friend of Jesus, 
thou child of Mary, thou who didst learn from 
Jesus and Mary that Gospel of universal charity 
which it was thy special mission by thy teach- 
ings and thy conduct to promulgate and illus- 
trate, — O, exert thy powerful influence in our 
behalf with thy divine Friend and Master, that 
we also may repose our weary heads upon that 
Adorable Breast. We do not covet thy sublimer 
titles. Be thine exclusively the epithets, Divine, 
Prophet, Evangelist ; but obtain for us this grace 
and it is enough, that when our little span of life 
shall end it can with some truth be said of each 
of us : He was a disciple whom Jesus loved. 



THE ISLE OF DESTINY. 



Of the numerous fond titles with which the 
tender patriotism of the Irish race has delighted 
to inwreath the revered name of Ireland, the 
most ancient, the sweetest on the tongue, the 
most melodious to the ear, the most redolent of 
mystery and prophecy, is that of Innisfail y — a 
word compounded of mms, an island, and fail, 
destiny, — the Island of Destiny. What weird 
Druidical priest of yore first read that strange 
word inscribed on the palpitating entrails of his 
victim, or heard it uttered by the murmuring 
branches of some mystic oak ? What bard first 
felt it spring to his lips under the powerful inspira- 
tion of his magic harp? Who shall say? "It 
was a favorite name for Ireland/' says Keating, 
" among the Tuatha de Danaan." 

The transcendent genius of Thomas Moore has 
labored to breathe color, life and motion into the 
spectral shapes of those prehistoric heroes in his 
beautiful 

SONG OF 1NNISFAIL. 

They came, from a land beyond the sea, 

And now o'er the western main 
Set sail, in their good ships, gallantly, 
From the sunny land of Spain. 
" Oh, where's the Isle we've seen in dreams, 
Our destined home or grave ? " 
Thus sung they as, by the morning's beams, 
They swept the Atlantic wave. 

9 6 



THE ISLE OF DESTINY. 



97 



And, lo, where afar o'er ocean shines 

A sparkle of radiant green, 
As though in that deep lay emerald mines, 

Whose light through the wave was seen. 
" Tis Innisfail — 'tis Innisfail ! " 

Rings o'er the echoing sea ; 
While, bending to heav'n, the warriors hail 

That home of the brave and free. 

Then turned they unto the eastern wave, 

Where now their Day-God's eye 
A look of such sunny omen gave 

As lighted up sea and sky. 
Nor frown was seen through sky or sea, 

Nor tear o'er leaf or sod, 
W 7 hen first on their Isle of Destiny 

Our great forefathers trod. 

But without indulging poetic fancies, let me 
pray you to consider, ladies and gentlemen, what 
a valuable store of historical information respect- 
ing the intellectual condition of our primitive 
ancestors lies imbedded in that pregnant word, 
which is, possibly, the earliest authentic record 
now extant of their inner thoughts and feelings. 
You have just now seen what a brilliant succes- 
sion of rich, sensuous images the word Innisfail 
conjured up before the warm imagination of the 
poet. But poets do not enjoy an exclusive mo- 
nopoly of the imagination. This noble faculty of 
our soul is, as an eminent author has justly 
remarked, the inspirer of history and philosophy 
as well as of poetry. Have you never heard how 
that the cold and disciplined imagination of the 
scientist can from a single bone construct the 
perfect image of an unknown animal? and how 
learned men from the study of a solitary en- 
graved gem dug up amidst a heap of rubbish, have 
been enabled to write long dissertations on the 
artistic and social conditions of nations long bur- 
7 



9 8 



THE ISLE OF DESTINY. 



ied in oblivion ? We, too, were we disposed to 
spend this evening in antiquarian musings, might 
build quite a lengthy essay upon this exquisite 
gem of poetry and philosophy which has descended 
to us through the wreck of ages from the prehis- 
toric times. It reveals to us a people capable of 
conceiving and uttering high and philosophic 
thoughts : a people struggling to solve that mys- 
terious problem of human life which has puzzled 
the unaided reason of every civilized race ; a peo- 
ple proud in the consciousness of a superior des- 
tiny and seized with a restless yearning for a 
higher and nobler life. If any one apprehends 
that I draw unwarranted conclusions from one 
little preserved emerald, let him try, and, gather- 
ing up all the resources of his learning, his genius 
and his civilization, devise a title for our little 
Island more beautiful, more apposite, more com- 
prehensive than InnisfaiL Is it not patent that 
the essential and all important step which segre- 
gates the civilized from the savage state had 
already been made — if indeed it ever had to be 
made — by a people who were able to seize and 
appreciate the idea of an overruling destiny ? The 
savage, like the brute of the field, lives a wild, 
thoughtless, aimless life. He has little or no fac- 
ulty of abstraction or generalization. He is not 
wont to rise to the apprehension or conception of 
such immaterial things as law, design or order. 
The phenomena of nature and of human life pass 
before his senses without leaving upon his mind 
the impression of an all-embracing, all-harmoniz- 
ing moral unity. Now this term Destiny ex- 
presses the notion of a potent agency, hidden, 
indeed, from the eyes of the flesh, and revealed 
very imperfectly to the natural reason, but dis- 
covering its existence to an understanding suffi- 



THE ISLE OF DESTINY. 



99 



ciently developed to abstract, to compare, to 
discriminate, to generalize, — in the steady majes- 
tic succession of visible and tangible events. 
What was it, my friends, that constituted the in- 
comparable excellence of the Hellenic intellect? 
What made the Greeks to be the acknowledged 
harbingers and teachers of European civilization? 
It was their vivid realization of the all-prevading, 
ever-present, ever-prevailing influence of Destiny. 
Throughout the wide circuit of their myriad-form 
literature, — sounded by Homer as the keynote of 
the Iliad and the Odyssey, bursting forth at brief 
intervals in the fiery ejaculations of -/Eschylus, 
forming the invariable moral of all the fascinating 
tales of Herodotus, infusing the very soul of trag- 
edy into the stately lines of Sophocles, put into sys- 
tematic form by the methodical genius of Plato, 
thundering through the impassioned periods of 
Demosthenes, — runs this great master thought, 
which had thoroughly imbued the minds and 
hearts of that wonderful and, as St. Paul so beau- 
tifully terms them, " over-religious " people, — that 
within the framework of this material universe 
there resides a mysterious Divinity who with infi- 
nite skill and sleepless vigilance is ever at work 
weaving the complicated web of physical phenom- 
ena and human activity into one vast, harmonious 
whole. It was this clear and intimate vision of 
the universal presence and dominion of law, of 
design, of predetermined purpose, which imparted 
to all the creations of Grecian thought that dig- 
nity, that symmetry, which succeeding and less 
ideal races have admired, but have not been able 
to reproduce. 

When we turn from the Greek, to contemplate 
that other great race of the ancient world, the 
Roman, we come upon a people who are equally 



100 



THE ISLE OF DESTINY. 



leavened with the doctrine of an irresistible des- 
tiny. But in the practical and matter-of-fact 
mind of the Roman this doctrine was indissolubly 
associated with his unwavering persuasion of tke 
divinity and predestined supremacy of his Eter- 
nal City. This overmastering faith in their des- 
tiny, which never forsook the Romans in the dark- 
est moments of their history, carried their eagles 
on the wings of victory from the Atlantic to the 
Tigris, from the Orkneys to the Cataracts of the 
Nile. It was not the sweet soul of Virgil, it was 
the hard, contemptuous, imperious genius of 
pagan Rome that dictated those immortal lines 
which Dryden has vainly endeavoured to render 
in English ; for Rome's language is as incommu- 
nicable as her destiny : 

" Let others better mould the running mass 
Of metals, and inform the breathing brass, 
And soften into flesh a marble face ; 
Plead better at the bar ; describe the skies, 
And when the stars descend, and when they rise. 
But Rome ! 'tis thine alone, with awful sway, 
To rule mankind, and make the world obey, 
Disposing peace and war thy own majestic way. 
To tame the proud, thy fetter'd slave to free — 
These are imperial arts and worthy thee." 

Into a world thus civilized, and partly ennobled, 
partly unnerved, by the worship of Destiny, came 
the religion of Jesus Christ, shedding a heavenly 
light upon the souls of men, expelling the foul 
shapes of demon-gods, and leaving erect, of all 
the altars built by pagan hands, only that of the 
mysterious Unknown God, some recognition of 
Whom had always haunted the darkened con- 
sciences of mankind. The God of Destiny re- 
mains ; but Oh ! how changed in features ! how 



THE ISLE OF DESTINY. 



IOI 



transformed in attributes ! It is no longer the cruel 
Moloch thirsting for human blood ! no longer 
the obscene Belial reveling in unspeakable lusts ! 
no longer the red-handed Jove delighting in his 
terror-breathing thunderbolts! Before the chast- 
ened eye of the Christian rises the divine image 
of an All-Wise, AU-Loving, All-Merciful Provi- 
dence. This fundamental dogma of Christianity, 
the supreme rule of a Beneficent Providence, Who 
stretcheth mightily from end to end of Time and 
Space and ordereth all things sweetly, without 
Whom not a sparrow can fall to the ground, Who 
maketh all things work together for good to those 
who love Him, — has totally changed the aspect 
of Nature, added a god-like dignity to human life 
and furnished us with an unerring clew with 
which to thread the dark mazes of history. 
Christianity has taught — not the most highly 
gifted and intellectual only, but the very hum- 
blest and most unlettered of her children to des- 
pise the pomp and show, however glittering, of 
transitory things, and, penetrating within the veil 
of sense, to read all earthly events in the light of 
God's high decrees. We are not dazzled by the 
momentary glamour of worldly grandeur ; we 
bow not at the altar of ill-gotten wealth or 
power ; we are not disheartened when iniquity 
gains an unholy triumph ; for God still rules su- 
preme, and "justice is perpetual and eternal." 
That historian is not worthy of the name who 
confines his efforts to a laborious noting down of 
facts and dates ; he is a chronicler, a retailer of 
gossip, as unscientific as is the idly inquisitive 
woman who is anxious to spy out what her neigh- 
bors are about and what they are eating for 
breakfast. He is the true historian who does not 
allow the outward phenomena of history — the 



102 



THE ISLE OF DESTINY. 



brilliant exploits of kings and armies and navies, 
the sieges and battles, the roar of the cannon and 
the gleam of the bayonet, the alternating vicissi- 
tudes of victory and defeat, of humiliation and 
glory — to draw away his mind from the reverent 
investigation of the adorable, mysterious, ever 
finally triumphant, counsels of Divine Providence. 

This constant reference of human affairs to the 
decrees and purpose of God is more than ordin- 
arily indispensable to one who should wish to 
understand the story of Ireland, that dear land 
which by its earliest inhabitants was looked upon 
with prescient awe as if the very Isle of Destiny. 
Ever more clearly, as the living roll of her 
national history unfolded itself, did it become 
visible that she occupied a place in the counsels 
of the Most High incommensurably larger than 
her physical size or native importance. That 
lofty place, that supernatural mission, is now so 
generally recognized that we are justified in 
assuming it as one of the most approved axioms 
of human history. Just as certain as that the 
Greeks were the divinely-chosen messengers of 
civilization, as certain as that the Roman Empire 
was the organ of Providence to prepare the way 
for the propagation of the Gospel, as certain as 
that it is the mission of our beloved America to 
teach mankind the compatibility of perfect order 
with civil liberty and equality — just so certain is 
it that Ireland was destined from of old to be 
Christianity's sacred island, the virgin home of 
orthodoxy, and the fertile mother of a saintly, 
apostolic race. 

It has been frequently remarked that there 
seems to exist a striking resemblance between 
the office and mission of the great Irish Apostle 
and his children in the New Dispensation and 



THE ISLE OF DESTINY. 



IO3 



the office and mission of the illustrious patriarch 
and his seed in the Old. At a time when igno- 
rance and religious error were creeping over the 
earth and involving the race of Adam in gross 
darkness, the Lord called Abraham forth from 
his country and his kindred to make him the 
father of a sacred nation — of a nation which 
should remain the dwelling place of light and 
truth amidst the universal gloom, and which, in 
God's appointed time, should communicate its 
inherited blessings to all the kindred of the earth. 
" And the Lord said to Abram : ' Go forth out 
of thy country, and from thy kindred and out of 
thy father's house : and come into the land which 
I shall show thee. And I will make thee a great 
nation, and I will bless thee and magnify thy 
name, and thou shalt be blessed. I will bless 
them that bless thee, and curse them that curse 
thee; and in thee shall all the kindred of the 
earth be blessed.' " 

Now, coming down to the fifth century of the 
Christian era, we seem to meet in the calling of 
the Irish Apostle the exact counterpart of the 
calling of Abraham. True religion appeared to 
be once more upon the point of vanishing from 
the earth. The Eastern Churches, torn and 
debased by endless heresies, dissensions and 
schisms, were rapidly sinking into that wretched 
abyss of apostasy from which they have never 
since permanently arisen. The condition of the 
Western Church was equally critical ; for al- 
though, thanks to the transcendent genius of 
St. Augustine and the divine zeal and authority 
of the Roman Pontiffs, the pestilential tide of 
Pelagianism had been forced back to its native 
Britain, yet storm-clouds were gathering in the 
depths of the Northern forests and on the East- 



104 



THE ISLE OF DESTINY. 



ern table-lands which seemed fated to sweep 
away civilization, law, knowledge and religion 
from the face of the globe. Already had the first 
tremendous billows of barbarian invasion rolled 
over Europe and spent their fury among the 
sands of Africa. Alaric the Goth had ravaged 
Italy and sacked Rome ; Genseric the Vandal 
sat enthroned in the ancient city of Carthage. 
Yet this was but the beginning of evils ; for 
unnumbered hordes were still to come, urged on 
by love of adventure and lust of conquest, but 
more impelled by their eagerness to escape the 
ever advancing shadow of the terrible Huns, 
those most savage of all barbarians, whose 
gigantic empire, dreaded alike by Goth and 
Roman, was stretching itself over hills and 
valleys, dense forests and lofty mountain-peaks, 
morasses, seas, rivers and trackless deserts, from 
the Wall of China to the banks of the Rhine. 

It was at this emergency that God spoke to 
the heart of the great saint whose memory we 
are here gathered to honor; "Go forth out of 
thy country and from thy kindred and out of thy 
father's house, and come into the land which I 
shall show thee." And where is this land which 
the Lord hath chosen ? Where is the home of 
those who are to enjoy light, whilst darkness 
enshrouds the earth, and liberty, whilst Europe is 
trampled under the feet of Goths and Huns and 
Vandals? Far away in the West there stood an 
island, moderate in size, wonderful in fertility, 
vying with the emerald in beauty, whose rugged 
cliffs, beetling over the unconquered ocean, 
marked the extreme limit of the known world. 
This happy island had been for untold centuries 
inhabited by a people who, protected by their 
watery ramparts from Scythian incursions and 



THE ISLE OF DESTINY. 



105 



Roman conquests, and unimbued with the sub- 
tleties of Grecian philosophy, maintained a sturdy 
independence, and tenaciously adhered to the 
laws, the institutions and the religion of their 
ancestors. 

" And that island green was as fair a scene as ever man's 
eye did see, 

With its chieftains bold and its temples old, and its homes 

and its altars free ! 
No foreign foe did that green isle know, no stranger 

band it bore, 

Save the merchant train from sunny Spain, and from Afric's 
golden shore ! 

And the young man's heart would fondly start, and the old 

man's eye would smile, 
As their thoughts would roam o'er the ocean foam to that 

lone and holy isle ! " 

So far as regards the natural character, the 
Irishman from his very first appearance upon the 
stage of history has preserved, almost unaltered, 
his well known distinctive traits. He has ever 
been generous in his impulses, quick-witted, 
impetuous, impressionable and hospitable. Un- 
til very recent times, the general acquaintance 
with the pre-Christian Irish was extremely im- 
perfect, being for the most part either drawn 
from the incidental and generally worthless 
gossip of Greek and Latin authors, or else woven 
entirely out of the arrogant self-sufficiency of 
modern literary brains. It has been demon- 
strated that voluminous writers have discoursed 
volubly on the political and social condition of 
the primitive Irish, the sum total of whose 
familiarity with the Brehon code was, that they 
were aware of its existence in college libraries 
and monasteries, w r ritten upon vellum in an 
unknown tongue. Of late, however, a more 



io6 



THE ISLE OF DESTINY. 



honest, more diligent, more scientific method 
has been adopted by the learned world ; and we 
are now in condition, thanks to the herculean 
labors of European scholars, many of them of 
foreign race, to resuscitate the long departed 
vitality of other days, and to put a vesture of 
flesh and blood upon the ghostly names of men 
who once led stirring lives, loved sport and the 
festal banquet, were jealous of their rights, 
exulted in forays and conquests, and melted at 
the voice of the skillful bard. But it is not my 
intention to lead you this evening through lonely 
graveyards, or to ask you to pore, like stern- 
visaged monks, over musty parchment. You 
love not the dead, but the living ; and so do I. 
If I beg to refer briefly to the laws and manners 
of the ancient Irish, it is in order to point out 
the living truth that the inextinguishable spirit 
of the Gael has remained substantially unchanged 
through all the tempests and revolutions of the 
ages. Down from the days of Milesius the Irish 
people have never faltered in their conviction of 
the inalienability of Irish freedom. Not less 
prominent and eternal is that other feature of 
their character, — their tender religious devotion 
to the green sward, the crystal streams, the 
sacred groves, the balmy air of their native 
island. 

The corner-stone of their ancient political insti- 
tutions was the fundamental principle that the 
Scot was a freeman. By their law of tanistry every 
dignitary in the land, from the Chief Monarch 
down to the humblest canfinny, was chosen by 
the free suffrages of his countrymen. " The law 
of tanistry," says an unfriendly English histo- 
rian — unfriendly through an Englishman's inborn 
aversion to everything which savors of democ- 



THE ISLE OF DESTINY. 



I07 



racy, — " regulated the succession of all dignities, 
from the highest to the lowest. It carefully 
excluded the sons from inheriting, as of right, the 
authority of their father ; and the tanist, or heir 
apparent, was elected by the suffrages of the sept 
during the lifetime of the ruling chieftain. The 
eldest of the name and family had, indeed* the 
best title to this distinctibn ; but his capacity and 
deserts were previously submitted to exami- 
nation, and the charge of crime, or cowardice, or 
deformity, might be urged as an insuperable ob- 
jection to his appointment. n * Such was the ex- 
treme care with which they guarded their politi- 
cal liberty ! 

Equally repugnant to their notions of equity 
was that keystone of feudal aristocracy, the right 
of primogeniture. By their law of gavelkind a 
man's inheritance descended to all his sons in 
equal portion, no privilege attaching to primo- 
geniture. Each daughter received at her mar- 
riage a dower amounting to the third part of the 
personal property of her father. Regarding the 
tenure of land, it is interesting to notice, that 
from the earliest times the Irish people have 
been consistent believers in the doctrine (a sane 
doctrine when soberly expounded) of the Land 
for the People. It would seem that originally — 
as if they felt an instinctive dread of that lurking 
enemy of Irish happiness, landlordism ! — they 
held the land in common. But as time went on, 
this rude and primitive arrangement was super- 
seded in part by the custom of private and exclu- 
sive ownership. Still, at all times, woods, bogs 
and mountain pastures were held to be the com- 
mon property of the clan. Very often, too, in 
order to prevent the excessive subdivision of the 

*Lingard, II., 86. 



io8 



THE ISLE OF DESTINY. 



family estates, the heirs did not divide their 
inheritance, but possessed it in partnership or 
joint tenancy. Thus we see that the agrarian 
theories of modern socialists were fairly tried 
and wisely discarded or amended many centuries 
ago by the common sense of the Irish people. 

The rights of the fair sex, as might have been 
expected from a race distinguished for poetry, 
music and gallantry, were very carefully protected 
by Irish legislation. In fact, if I may say it 
without boorishness, they seem to have carried 
the maxims of Woman's Rights to indefensible 
extremes. If the Scot was a free man, his wife 
was a free woman with a vengeance. A poor 
Irish husband in pagan times had to deal with 
his wife as gingerly, as if they were living to-day 
in the saucy town of Chicago. Let me give you 
one illustration. Seven cases were specified by 
law in which a wife was justified in separating 
from her husband, bag, baggage and dowry, and 
could sue him for damages besides. 

ist. If he told lies about her. 

2d. If he made fun of her. 

3d. If he left the slightest visible mark on her 
with fist or shillalagh. 

4th. If he ran away and left her. 

5th. If he were unfaithful or neglected to sup- 
port her decently. 

6th. If ever she found out that during the 
sunny days of their courtship he had won her af- 
fections by any other magic than that of his 
own sweet blarney. 

7th. If he undertook to restrain her will, and 
refused to give her full sway in all domestic and 
social concerns. 

I should like to know how many modern Ben- 
edicts could keep a wife for one month on these 



THE ISLE OF DESTINY. 



IO9 



hard terms. Is it wonderful, after all, that the 
masculine moiety of the Irish race took up with 
eagerness the gentle yoke of Christianity which 
freed them from the cruel despotism of their 
wives? Imagine the joy with which a henpecked 
husband would hear for the first time the doc- 
trine of St. Paul : " Let women be subject to 
their husbands as to the Lord ; for the husband 
is the head of the wife." However, I am com- 
pelled to admit that our mothers do not appear to 
have made a tyrannical or frequent use of their 
tremendous prerogatives. Presumably they sim- 
ply hung them over the submissive heads of their 
" worser halves 99 in terror em. 

Another striking feature of ancient life in Ire- 
land was the jealousy with which the free-born 
Scots safeguarded their personal liberty. It has 
been remarked to me by a reverend colleague 
who is deeply versed in all Irish questions, that 
there seems to be no evidence of the existence in 
independent Ireland of any body of police offi- 
cers ; and that the coercive force mainly relied 
upon for the execution of law and the mainten- 
ance of order seems to have been that of public 
opinion. Think of it, ladies and gentlemen ! 
Ireland without policemen ! Why, if there is a 
single article in which at the present day the 
island more abounds than the potato, it surely is 
the police. They run across your path, they 
stop you and cross-examine you, and dog your 
steps and pry into your affairs, and shake you 
and club you at every turn. They are as numer- 
ous and as offensive as the frogs were in the evil 
day of the Pharaoh — found in the streets, found 
in the houses, found in the closets, found in the 
ovens ; — before long, I hope to goodness, they 
will be found " in the soup " ! And yet, with all 



no 



THE ISLE OF DESTINY. 



these hordes of pugilistic police, armed with clubs 
and Coercion Acts, is it not as true to-day as it 
was in the days of King Laoghaire that the only 
really effective coercion which avails in Ireland is 
that which emanates from earnest, patriotic Irish 
public opinion? 

The criminal code of our ancestors bore the 
impress of the national gentleness; for not only 
did they refrain from the judicial tortures, torments 
and atrocities which have disfigured the legisla- 
tion of, I believe, every other race even the most 
highly civilized , but it is also universally agreed 
that they invariably shrank from the actual inflic- 
tion by judicial sentence of capital punishment 
in its mildest forms. This is the more remark- 
able, because they were eminently a warlike race, 
ever too eager for strife and battle. But of 
course it is one thing to kill your man on the 
field of battle in the heat of conflict, and quite 
another to hang him, quarter him, disembowel 
him, burn him, or impale him in cold blood. 
Such barbarities as these were afterwards im- 
ported into Ireland by the Strongbows as one 
among many similar refined concomitants of 
" Anglo-Saxon civilization. " 

Their religion consisted in the worship of all 
those great objects in nature which are most apt 
to excite the veneration of a race highly imagin- 
ative and poetical, — the sun and moon, the run- 
ning stream and the consuming flame, the 
mighty tempest, the awful mountain, and, above 
all the mysterious shade of their oaken groves. 
And thus they continued for ages, unmolested, 
to sing to their wild harps the praises of their 
gods and the renown of their ancient heroes. 

This is the nation which the Lord has chosen 
for His peculiar inheritance ; this the land upon 



THE ISLE OF DESTINY. 



Ill 



whose fair horizon the Sun of Justice is about to 
rise, never more to set. Ireland ! hitherto thou 
hast borne no yoke. Thy hills have never 
echoed the shouts of invading legions : no cap- 
tive Irish chieftain has graced the triumph of a 
Roman general. But that which the mighty line 
of Caesars failed to do, Christ will do. A new 
and more insatiable spirit of conquest has seized 
upon the decaying City of the Seven Hills. 
There rules now a dynasty of unarmed priests 
who respect not the cautious policy of Augustus ; 
nor will they rest content until the kingdom of 
their Master shall be coextensive with the globe. 
Pope Celestine has heard strange tales about the 
untamed Scots in " frozen Ierne." His saintly 
ambition has been aroused. He cannot endure 
the sight of a nation still rioting in godless 
liberty. He has looked about him, and having 
selected a general in whom he has full trust, he 
has given the signal for the assault. Behold, 
hastening over mountain and sea, armed with 
a staff received from JESUS, strengthened with 
ample jurisdiction from the Supreme Pontiff, 
fearless, undaunted, PATRICK advances, a host 
in himself. No novice in apostolic warfare is 
this new champion of Christianity. Inured to 
toil, as well by the hardships of bondage as by 
long years of extraordinary penances, instructed 
in the science of God by the most distinguished 
masters of his age, having served under two 
great commanders in a brilliant campaign against 
heresy in Britain, he brings to the task allotted 
him by Providence ability, skill, experience and 
the prestige of past success. He lands upon the 
coast of Erin ; uplifts the standard of the Cross, 
and claims possession of the island in the name 
of Christ and of His Vicar. The peaceful glories 



112 



THE ISLE OF DESTINY. 



of his- conquest it may seem quite superfluous to 
recount ; for they are indelibly engraven upon 
the hearts of a grateful race. And yet the 
majestic figure of that god-like conqueror; the 
immortal grandeur of his triumphant march from 
sea to sea; the unprecedented spectacle of a 
whole nation willingly forsaking its ancestral 
superstitions and accepting the Christian faith 
without the shedding of blood, without persecu- 
tions, almost without resistance ; the sudden 
lifting up of that gloomy veil of Destiny which 
had thrown over the lonely island a mysterious 
awe and the re-apparition, in the bright sunlight 
of Christianity, of dark Innisfail as the elect Isle 
of the Saints ; — these dazzling visions form a 
national heirloom of glory for the children of Ire- 
land which our souls are never weary of contem- 
plating. As the ancient people of God loved to 
hear and to recount again and again the wonderful 
story of their deliverance from bondage, so do 
the faithful Irish delight to ponder every well- 
known incident relating to the conversion of 
their fathers. Though you have heard that 
history a thousand times ; though it has sunk 
deeply into your hearts and memories, yet I 
should feel that I were failing in reverence to 
our illustrious Apostle and were defrauding your 
souls of a great satisfaction, if I passed on with- 
out relating it once more in brief and simple 
words. 

Although St. Patrick has taken care in that 
beautiful autobiographical sketch known as his 
" Confession," to tell us the name of his birth- 
place, nevertheless, so completely have the old 
landmarks been destroyed by the ravages of 
time, that it is still in dispute whether we should 
deem him a native of Scotland or of Gaul. For 



THE ISLE OF DESTINY. 



113 



myself, speaking with the diffidence which befits 
my lack of skill and research, I am strongly dis- 
posed to identify him with the Palladius men- 
tioned by a contemporary writer as the Apostle 
of Ireland, and consequently to conclude that the 
site of his native town must be sought for some- 
where on the northwestern shore of Gaul. St. 
Patrick informs us that his family was of gentle 
extraction and of Christian faith, and that his 
father held a municipal office of considerable 
distinction. In his sixteenth year, together with 
thousands of his countrymen, the young saint 
was taken captive, presumably by one of those 
formidable expeditions so often fitted out in 
that age by the kings of Ireland against the 
outlying districts of the Roman Empire, with 
which they waged perpetual war. He was sold 
as a slave to a chieftain of Dalaradia, in the 
present County of Antrim. Six years he spent 
in a heavy bondage, relieved only by the consola- 
tions of religion and the visitations of angels. 
" For whilst I tended the cattle and gave myself 
to prayer," says the saint, " divine love, and 
fear, and faith, and the Holy Spirit drew nearer 
and increased within me, so that often in a single 
day have I said one hundred prayers and as 
many in the night; and I loved to meditate in 
the forests and on the mountains. Before the 
daylight I arose to pray and I heeded not snow, 
or frost, or rain. I grew insensible to the evils 
that had fallen upon me, neither was sloth found 
within me ; for the Divine Spirit was burning in 
my soul." His heroic resignation, his constancy 
in prayer, in vigils and in fasting at length 
secured him a noble reward. A voice from 
heaven announced to him that his deliverance 
was nigh ; a ship stood ready to take him to 
8 



ii4 



THE ISLE OF DESTINY. 



Gaul and freedom. But when the land of his 
bondage vanished in the distance, St. Patrick 
discovered that his affections were still roaming 
through the woods and over the mountains of 
that fascinating island. An overwhelming im- 
pulse to return came upon him. Waking and 
sleeping, he seemed to hear the pleading tones of 
innumerable voices issuing " from the wood of 
Fochlut which is near the Western Sea." 
" Come," they cried out, " come, we implore 
thee, holy youth, and walk evermore amongst 
us." It was the grand collective appeal of the 
Irish race of all generations. It was the voice of 
the destined seed of the patriarch, " as nume- 
rous as the stars of heaven and as the sand that 
is by the seashore." Included in that mighty 
volume of sound which smote upon the heart 
of St. Patrick were your voices, my friends, and 
mine. 

Yielding to the supernatural call of Destiny, the 
saint labored by close application to the study of 
Scripture, by visiting the prominent centres of 
monasticism and, especially, by living in familiar 
intercourse with St. Germanus, the renowned 
Bishop of Auxerre, to fit himself for his sublime 
mission. He has told us how violently and 
persistently his kindred strove to divert him 
from his purpose of returning among the dreaded 
Scots. But he " condescended not to flesh and 
blood ; " and in the year of Christ 432, with the 
commission and the blessing of the great Pope 
who had just asserted against Nestorius Mary's 
right to her grand title of Mother of God, he set 
sail with a few companions in one little coracle 
to subjugate a nation whose fleets were the 
terror of every sea. He landed at the spot 
where now stands the town of Wicklow. This 



THE ISLE OF DESTINY. 



115 



part of the island was then inhabited by the 
Cullens, who were subsequently expelled by my 
maternal forefathers, the O'Byrnes. If there are 
any Cullens, or Collins, or Cullinans, or Colahans 
in the audience, I pray them not to be angry 
with me and the other Byrneses here present on 
account of the reprehensible pugnacity of our 
ancestors. Surely no one can deny that lovely 
Wicklow — the native county, by the way, of Mr. 
Parnell — with her picturesque glens and her 
incomparable Vale of Avoca, was a most deli- 
cious and enticing morsel. After a short stay in 
Wicklow, St. Patrick sailed northward along the 
eastern coast of the island, touching at intervals, 
and finally disembarked on the shore of the 
Strangford Lough in the future County Down. 
Here he made his first distinguished convert, a 
chieftain of the royal blood,— that same old 
Ulster blood which now courses through the 
veins of Queen Victoria, and in virtue of which 
she wears her royal and imperial crown. Are 
you not aware that Queen Victoria is an O'Neill? 
She is a lineal descendant of the immortal Niall 
of the Nine Hostages. I do not say that she is 
a typical O'Neill ; there are too many foreign 
admixtures in her blood. But I assert that it is 
the O'Neill blood, not the foreign blood in her, 
that entitles her to the style and title of royalty. 
Let me trace her pedigree for you, — though, to 
tell the truth, I am not as adept in unraveling 
genealogies as my grandmother used to be. 
Blessings on her memory ! She could skip about 
the intricate branches of a genealogical tree with 
the agility of a squirrel. But, I fear, dexterity 
in ferreting out kinships is rapidly becoming one 
of the lost arts. Well, about the age of St. 
Patrick, Ere, one of the descendants of the 



u6 



THE ISLE OF DESTINY. 



immortal Niall, led a colony of brave Ulster 
Scots over into Western Caledonia, where in 
Argyleshire — which perpetuates by its very 
name the memory of their settlement ; for 
Argyle means the territory of the Gael — they 
founded the kingdom of Dalriade, which grew 
and grew (as all things Irish grow when they get 
fair play), absorbing and incorporating the petty 
tribes of the Picts until, in the middle of the 
ninth century, Kenneth McAlpine, a lineal 
descendant of Ere and Niall, was acknowledged 
monarch of all Caledonia, a name now exchanged 
for the Irish name of Scotland. The male line 
of the McAlpine dynasty came to an end in 1285 
upon the decease of Alexander III. ; but it was 
succeeded by the dynasties of the Bruces and 
the Stuarts, who were descended from the old 
Celtic kings through their mothers. Following 
down the line of Stuarts, we come to that 
sweetest, dearest, most Irish and lovely of all the 
O'Neills, Mary Stuart. Her bright boy Jamie, 
as everybody knows, united the crown of Eng- 
land to that of Scotland ; and from James 
through many a genealogical meander descends 
Victoria Guelph-Stuart-O'Neill, by the grace of 
God Queen of England and Scotland, and not 
without considerable intermeddling of old Nick 
— the blackguard ! — Queen of Ireland, too. 
Now, Miss O'Neill, if you are desirous of follow- 
ing up more closely your relationship to your 
royal Scotch cousin, you may do so at your 
leisure. We shall return to County Down, where 
we left St. Patrick pouring the regenerating 
waters of Baptism upon the head of the first 
high-born chieftain of our race who bowed his 
neck to the sweet yoke of Christ. The conver- 
sion of this prince was followed by the erection, 



THE ISLE OF DESTINY. 



117 



on the spot where he first met the apostle, of the 
earliest Christian church and monastery in 
Ireland, namely Saul, — a consecrated spot very 
dear to the heart of the saint, whither he fre- 
quently returned during life to rest from his 
labors, and whence, finally, his soul winged her 
flight to heaven. 

Whilst engaged in evangelizing the scenes of 
his former captivity, St. Patrick learned that 
the great triennial convention of the Irish nation 
was gathering about King Laoghaire in the 
world-renowned halls of Tara. Immediately he 
conceived the daring project, worthy of the strate- 
getical genius of a Caesar or Napoleon, of abandon- 
ing minor and desultory conflicts with paganism 
and striking the decisive blow at the very heart 
and stronghold of the enemy. His success was 
so complete we are apt to forget that the design 
was extremely hazardous and full of personal 
danger. It was, in fact, an utter reversal of apos- 
tolic precedents; for, heretofore, Christianity had 
gained its triumphs by leavening first the lower 
and obscurer strata of society. St. Peter's labors 
in Rome had been chiefly directed to the conver- 
sion of Jews and slaves; St. Paul reminds the 
Christians of Corinth that they numbered 
amongst them " not many wise according to the 
flesh, not many mighty, not many noble." Thus 
the Gospel had been preached mainly to the poor. 
All the more remarkable and no doubt equally the 
effect of divine inspiration was St. Patrick's re- 
solve to proclaim the good tidings openly, pub- 
licly, defiantly, before the assembled kings, chief- 
tains, druids, bards, and gentle dames in the vast 
banquet-hall of the Ardrigh. Sailing around to 
the mouth of the Boyne, he proceeded up the 
river and boldly kindled on the hill of Slane that 



ii8 



THE ISLE OF DESTINY. 



blessed Easter fire which consumed every vestige 
of the rites of Baal. Summoned before the con- 
vened political, literary, social and religious lead- 
ers of the nation, he expounded the saving doc- 
trines of Christ, and consecrated for all time the 
dear shamrock of Ireland. That memorable Eas- 
ter day may be said to have virtually effected the 
conversion of the whole island ; for the many 
chieftains who returned to their homes clad in 
the white baptismal robe, the princely youths 
and maidens who reappeared among their kins- 
folk with shorn locks and wearing the monastic 
garb, the former priests of Druidism initiated 
now in holier and sublimer rites — multiplied the 
voice of the Apostle in every remote corner and 
clan. King Laoghaire himself, though at first 
violently opposed to the preacher of the new reli- 
gion, was soon carried away by the current and 
gave at least a nominal adhesion to Christianity. 
His religion, as is usual with royalty, was but 
superficial ; yet it was desirable he should be a 
lukewarm friend rather than a bitter enemy. His 
neutrality secured for the saint a safe-conduct 
through the island. 

St. Patrick was drawn to the Western Sea in 
search of those mysterious voices which had 
issued from the wood of Fochlut. His first great 
missionary expedition was, therefore, into the 
province of Connaught, which he entered in com- 
pany with the chiefs of the West returning from 
Tara. Here he spent seven busy years, probably 
the happiest of his life. It were tedious to nar- 
rate the story of the conversions he effected, the 
churches, monasteries and bishoprics he founded, 
and the laws he established. Suffice it to say 
that from that day to this Connaught has re- 
mained the very stronghold and citadel of Irish 



THE ISLE OF DESTINY. 



II 9 



Catholicity. It was at this period that, according 
to the well-known legend, St. Patrick, whilst 
keeping the fast of Lent on the site of the pres- 
ent Westport, gathered up all the venomous rep- 
tiles of the island into one grim procession and 
marched them over the cliffs into the waters of 
Clew Bay. And oh ! ladies and gentlemen, that 
the canonized saint would return some bright 
morning and gathering in, with his miraculous 
crook, the vile brood of toads, vipers and leeches 
that have fastened on the vitals of the people, 
would send them spinning after their proto- 
types ! 

When Connaught was completely evangelized, 
the saint proceeded to subjugate the northern 
province of Ulster. Beginning with Donegal, he 
worked his way eastward to Armagh, where he 
erected the primatial See of all Ireland. Why he 
chose Armagh for the primacy instead of fixing 
his headquarters in a more central position is not 
entirely clear. Probably he felt a peculiar tender- 
ness for Ulstermen from the associations of ear- 
lier days; possibly, too, he conceived that those 
bold tribes could stand a little special watching. 
There is a tradition that at this time he once 
more visited Rome and returned with the pallium 
and full legatine powers. From Ulster the inde- 
fatigable saint passed down through Leinster into 
the great kingdom of Munster. Legend says 
that as he approached Cashel all the idols of the 
south fell to the ground. Certainly if they did 
not come down of themselves they were very 
soon brought low. Seven years sufficed to plant 
the cross among the southern clans, and thus the 
conversion of the island was complete. Vestiges 
of the old superstitions remained, indeed, here 
and there to give employment to the zeal of 



120 



THE ISLE OF DESTINY. 



monks and bishops ; but though the Irish people 
have had ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet 
have they had but one father. " The glorious St. 
Patrick," says Cardinal Newman," did a work so 
great that he could not have a successor in it, the 
sanctity and learning and zeal and charity which 
followed on his death being but the result of the 
one impulse which he gave." 

Thus has the obedience of the new patriarch, 
the Christian Abraham, been amply rewarded. 
He is in possession of the land which the Lord 
had shown him. He is become the father of a 
great nation which to the end of time will en- 
shrine his blessed name in their heart of hearts 
with religious enthusiasm. Generations shall 
come and go, but the memory of St. Patrick 
will never fade. Happy Ireland ! which wel- 
comed so great an apostle ; and happy apostle ! 
whose lot was cast among so affectionate a peo- 
ple. 

But his work is done ; and the time has arrived 
when the saint is destined to receive a second 
call from Almighty God — a call, this time, not to 
labor, but to repose ; not to go forth on a lifelong 
pilgrimage, but to enter into his eternal home. 
From his metropolitan throne in Armagh the 
aged conqueror beholds the entire nation subject 
to his spiritual authority, and through him sub- 
ject to Rome, and through Rome subject to 
Christ. Religion flourishes throughout the island 
in the simplicity of infancy combined with the full 
vigor of manhood How changed is Erin now 
from what she was that day when Patrick in his 
early youth was cast upon her shore a despised 
and downcast slave ! And oh ! that we were wor- 
thy, my friends, to enter into the sanctuary of 
our venerable father's meditations as he recalls 



THE ISLE GF DESTINY. 



121 



one by one the events of his long and checkered 
career. It is only now, when the drama of his 
life is fast hastening to its close, that he can fully 
appreciate the beautiful unity of design which has 
reigned throughout it, and can perceive how all 
the occurrences of his life, even the most painful 
and most mysterious were by the hand of God 
woven skilfully into the web of the great mission 
to which he had been predestined. But thy 
trials are now ended ; thy day's work is finished. 
" Go forth/' faithful servant of the Lord ; thy 
Master's arms are extended to embrace thee. 

In this supreme moment, one thought only, I 
think, disturbed the fulness of the saint's blessed- 
ness, — the thought that in Ireland no one had 
been found in all these years of his labors who 
would add to his apostleship the crown of mar- 
tyrdom. How he envied St. Peter his cross, St. 
Paul his sword, St. Bartholomew his knife, even 
St. John his caldron ! He had been like these 
princes of the Church in life ; wherefore shall he 
be unlike them in death ? They witnessed unto 
Christ amidst excruciating torments ; is he 
placidly to expire on his couch ? They died 
hooted and scoffed by an unbelieving rabble ; he 
is surrounded by loving and attentive children. 
What means this innovation upon the fate of the 
apostles? It is a problem which seems to have 
constantly engaged his thoughts ; for in the few 
existing remains of his writings he repeatedly 
discloses his eager yearning for martyrdom, his 
surprise and disappointment that he has not 
been called upon to lay down his life for Christ, 
mingled with a feeling of uneasiness that per- 
haps his Master does not deem that his labors 
have been worthy to receive the apostle's coveted 
reward. But courage, great saint ! God looks 



122 



THE ISLE OF DESTINY. 



not upon the gift, but upon the heart. Though 
the Irish are not a people destined to make mar- 
tyrs, but to become martyrs, yet has not thy 
whole life been one prolonged martyrdom ? 
Thy slavery sanctified by prayer and patience, 
was a martyrdom ; thy sacrifice of country, of 
kindred, and of the comforts of thy patrician 
home was a martyrdom ; the ardent zeal which 
consumed thy life in the hardships of the apos- 
tolate was a martyrdom ; and whatever may be 
wanting to thy crown in the shape of torments or 
persecutions thou shalt receive vicariously in the 
heroic sufferings of thy children in future ages. 
Happy destiny! Ireland's apostle suffers not 
from his children, but in them and with them. 
My soul loves to dwell upon this sweet scene of 
St. Patrick's dying moments. It is a spectacle 
which Ireland alone can boast. She alone mani- 
fested for her apostle during his lifetime the 
same filial reverence which she has paid to his 
memory since his death. The nation stood at 
his bedside to cheer his declining strength with 
tender solicitude; and the saint, whose love for 
his children was stronger than death, forgetful of 
himself, concentrates his failing energies upon 
the great object of his affections and his tri- 
umphs. Gather about your aged father, children 
of Ireland, and catch the last precious words 
which are quivering upon his lips. " Grant me 
this favor, O Lord," he murmurs, " that my peo- 
ple may remain ever true to the faith I have 
taught them ! " With this prophetic prayer upon 
his lips, the blessed man of God passed away to 
his heavenly home. He passed away ; but his 
spirit remained with his people, and throughout 
all the vicissitudes of their extraordinary history 
they have remained " ever true to the faith." 



THE ISLE OF DESTINY. 



123 



Indeed, the history of Catholic Ireland seems 
to be only the sequel or prolongation of the life 
of her apostle ; and, on the other hand, the life of 
St, Patrick might pass for an excellent allegory 
of the subsequent history of his people. That 
same admirable unity of design which we observe 
running through the life of St. Patrick, that same 
providential shaping of all circumstances to the 
working out of a divinely-appointed mission, is 
unmistakably discernible in the history of Ireland. 
If her fate has been at all times exceptional in 
good and evil, this has been owing to the very 
peculiar and exceptional position which she has 
occupied in the great and mysterious counsels of 
God. 

There are few, ladies and gentlemen, who of 
set principle deny the active and constant inter- 
vention of Divine Providence for the regulating 
the affairs of this world. But so vast are the 
designs of God ; so complicated is the machinery 
of human society ; so disturbing is the element 
of the wayward, sinful free-will of man, that in 
practice we are often in danger of losing sight of 
the important truth that our free human agency 
is as thoroughly subject to the laws of Provi- 
dence as are the motions of the stars in their orbits. 
His judgments, indeed, are incomprehensible, and 
His ways unsearchable ; nor can we hope to 
sound the depth of the riches of His wisdom and 
knowledge, until the great day when He shall 
fully reveal the secrets of His counsels. Yet we 
are not left in the dark as regards the one ulti- 
mate object which He has set before Him, and 
which He pursues unchangeably throughout all 
ages — the salvation of the souls of men through 
the extension and exaltation of the spiritual 
kingdom of the Son of His love. 



124 



THE ISLE OF DESTINY. 



Now Ireland's destiny in the Church of God is 
so patent that he who runs may read it. Geo- 
graphically secluded from the profane world, she 
was chosen by the Almighty, like Palestine of 
old, to be His inalienable inheritance, the im- 
pregnable citadel of Revelation, and the seminary 
of an apostolic race. In a world so tempestuous 
as this, where decay and mortality are written 
upon the face of all things, where the greatest 
nations, as well as individuals, are prone to fall 
and to become persecutors of that Faith of 
which they are the natural protectors, it was nec- 
essary that the Church of Christ should have 
some nation upon whose fidelity she could securely 
rely, and from whose bosom she could, in times 
of dire distress, replenish her spent forces. That 
sacred nation is Ireland, my friends. Whilst 
Rome has ever been, and will ever remain, the 
head of the Church, Ireland is her right arm. 
The Roman Pontiff is the General-in-Chief of the 
people of God ; but the Irish are His forlorn 
hope, never shrinking from the thickest of the 
combat, passionately attached to their spiritual 
chieftain, and yielding a filial and rational obedi- 
ence to his venerable commands. In thus ex- 
tolling Ireland, I have no wish to rob the other 
nations of their due meed of praise. Many of 
them have deserved well of the Faith ; contributed 
powerfully to propagate it, or suffered much in 
preserving it. But not one of them all contests 
with our Isle of the Saints the honor of being in 
the most complete and tender manner con- 
secrated to the religion of Jesus Christ. All 
other nations have a profane as well as a sacred 
history. They have achieved power and glory 
through struggles animated by other interests 
than those of religion — interests oftentimes op- 



THE ISLE OF DESTINY. 



125 



posed to those of religion. The history of Ire- 
land, on the contrary, has, since her conversion, 
been thoroughly identified with that of religion. 
Whether in peace or in war, in glory or in shame, 
the cause of God has been inextricably inter- 
woven with the cause of her nationality. In the 
days of her independence a stranger who visited 
her shores might almost have pronounced her a 
nation of priests, monks and nuns ruled by 
crowned bishops. Whenever Ireland has taken 
to arms, it has been to defend her faith and to 
avenge her overturned altars. And so powerful 
is the influence of her sacred soil and of her 
saintly atmosphere that the pagan Danes and the 
unruly Normans soon became as Catholic and as 
Irish as the Irish themselves. Look at the grand 
array of heroes, — her Brians and Malachys, her 
Tyrones and Tyrconnels, her Sarsfields, her 
O'Connells. In what do they differ from the 
Samsons and Machabees of old ? Were they not 
as exemplary in their lives ? Was not the blended 
cause of God and fatherland just as sacred ? 

I am aware that this supernatural method of 
presenting Irish history is not palatable to some 
individuals of our race, who are tainted with the 
materialistic infidelity which infects the present 
age. Some there are — not many, indeed, for 
materialism and infidelity are snakes that do not 
thrive in Irish soil — who hear this Catholic doc- 
trine with ill-will. They think it likely, forsooth, 
to breed a fatalistic apathy in the national breast. 
They fear it may dull the edge of patriotism and 
reconcile the popular heart to oppression and 
treason. Impious folly ! Do they think the 
Irish are like the Turks, that they cannot draw a 
wide distinction between God's eternal purpose 
and man's petty malice ? Believing as we do 



126 



THE ISLE OF DESTINY. 



that the sufferings of Christ were predestined, 
are we the less disposed to detest the cowardice 
of the unjust judge, the frenzy of the infuriated 
populace, or the base treachery of Judas Iscariot ? 
You forget, too, my friends, that we are intent 
upon studying, not Ireland's unknown future, 
but her glorious record in the past. That past 
cannot now be changed by any theories of ours ; 
nor can it be understood unless it be read in the 
light of Christian faith. To the eye of the infidel 
it presents only a disjointed succession of con- 
tradictory events, which seem to follow each 
other without order or meaning. But when we 
survey it from the lofty standpoint of Divine 
Providence, then we are able to soar above 

" The whips and scorns of time, 
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely," 

and perceive running alike through sunshine and 
tempest the eternal, merciful purpose of an 
unchanging destiny. 

There are, then, as I have already intimated, 
so many points of analogy between the life of St. 
Patrick and the history of Catholic Ireland, that 
a poetic mind might fancy the saint ended his 
mortal career only to begin life over again on a 
grander scale in his children. The life of St. 
Patrick divides itself into three distinct periods, 
the first two of which were preparatory to the 
glorious labors of the third. The first sixteen 
years of his life were years of peace and happi- 
ness, unmarred by sin or sorrow. During this 
period the young saint, sheltered from this evil 
world in the bosom of a religious home and sur- 
rounded by models of Christian virtue, ex- 
panded in the rich bloom of unsullied innocence. 



THE ISLE OF DESTINY. 



12/ 



Then followed the epoch of his trials in bondage, 
when the tender plant was plucked from its 
native soil and cast upon the bleak Northern 
hills. Here in the stern school of adversity the 
delicate became rugged ; the child was developed 
into the man ; the modest youth began to dream 
of bold enterprises and vast spiritual conquests. 
Thus was St. Patrick trained to the apostolate. 
And has not Divine Providence pursued the self- 
same course with the Irish nation ? In the his- 
tory of Catholic Ireland we discern these same 
distinct periods — the blameless childhood, the 
stormy adolescence, and the apostolic manhood. 

L Whilst darkness and desolation covered the 
rest of the earth ; whilst Huns and Saxons, 
Goths and Lombards, Moors and Saracens car- 
ried despair and death into all corners of Europe, 
Asia and Africa ; whilst one by one the bright 
lights of ancient Christendom — Jerusalem, 
Antioch, Alexandria, Carthage — were extin- 
guished, Ireland, exempted by a special grace of 
the Almighty from the universal misery, contin- 
ued for three centuries to be the unmolested 
sanctuary of the faith, the asylum of learning, 
the nursery of saints and missionaries. How 
wistfully we now look back through all the inter- 
vening horrors upon those happy days of the 
nation's childhood, when, quite unconscious of 
the dark future in store for her, she consecrated 
her virgin heart to the service of God ; when 
churches and monasteries crowned each hill and 
nestled in each dale ; when the air was ever 
laden with melodious psalmody and the perfume 
of prayer ; when, unable to contain within her 
generous Celtic breast the fulness of her joy, she 
sent forth, as a presage of her future apostolic 
labors, her Columbas to the isles of the north, 



128 



THE ISLE OF DESTINY. 



her Columbanuses into the heart of Europe, and 
launched her Brandans on the western waves to 
discover new realms for Christ ! 

The exceptional character of Ireland's position 
was fully appreciated by the other nations of 
Europe. She was looked upon as sacred ground ; 
and her people were recognized as enjoying in a 
special manner the protection of our Saviour. I 
narrate a thrice-told tale. To her sheltering 
bosom there flocked from all Christendom studi- 
ous souls thirsting for knowledge, repentant 
souls longing for seclusion, virtuous souls in quest 
of refuge and models ; and they found knowledge 
in her schools, disclipine in her cloisters, whilst 
the humblest peasants in the island could teach 
them, by precept and example, the path of 
Christian perfection. For the Irish at their con- 
version did not put on religion as if an outward 
garment. The Catholic faith sank deep into 
their souls and became the center of their private 
and public life. It absorbed and assimilated all 
their thoughts and aspirations. For their faith 
they lived and studied ; in their faith they 
reposed their individual happiness and their 
national glory. 

II. But a change came over the face of the 
island. Indeed, these three centuries of happy 
tranquillity were intended to be only a period of 
preparation, only an introduction to the history 
of the nation. A Christian nation can, no more 
than a Christian individual, hope to follow Christ 
by any other way than that of the Cross ; and as 
well the nation as the individual must employ 
such periods of truce and quiet in preparation 
for the struggle which is certain, sooner or later, 
to supervene. The fateful day of trial at length 
arrived for Ireland. I can fancy, ladies and gen- 



THE ISLE OF DESTINY. 



129 



tlemen, a scene in heaven like unto that which 
ushered in the sorrows of patient Job. Once 
more, methinks, " on a certain day when the sons 
of God came to stand before the Lord/' the foul 
prince of darkness obtruded his loathsome pres- 
ence upon that blessed company. Then spoke 
our Divine Lord : " Hast thou considered My 
chosen people, that there are none like them in 
the earth, simple and upright men, and fearing 
God and avoiding evil?" But Satan, answering, 
said: " Doth Erin fear God in vain? Hast not 
Thou made a fence for her and her house and all 
her substance round about, blessed the works of 
her hands, and her possession hath increased on 
the earth ? But stretch forth Thy hand, and 
touch all that she hath, and her bone and her 
flesh ; and then shalt Thou see that she will 
bless Thee to Thy face." The Almighty, willing 
to glorify His elect and the power of His grace, 
took up the challenge so impudently cast before 
Him, and gave permission to Satan to wreak his 
fury on the devoted nation, making, however, 
the same reservation in her favor which He had 
made in the case of His servant Job, that the 
Evil One must spare her life. A conflict there- 
upon ensued which stands unparalleled in the 
annals of the human race. 



" A fatal spell on that green isle fell, a shadow of death and 
gloom 

Pass'd withering o'er, from shore to shore, like the breath of 

the foul simoon ; 
And each green hill's side was erimson dyed, and each 

stream rolled red and wild 
With the mingled blood of the brave and good, — of mother, 

and maid, and child V 



Never were the engines of infernal warfare 

9 



130 



THE ISLE OF DESTINY. 



brought to bear upon the children of men with 
such preternatural skill, with such overwhelming 
force, with such fiendish cunning, with such 
stubborn persistence ; yet never did the infernal 
serpent sustain so thorough, so crushing a defeat. 
Wars and famines, invasions, conquests, confisca- 
tions ; the cruel steel of a ferocious soldiery ; the 
brutal whip of an implanted band of robbers ; 
the haughty insolence of a State-fed, heretical 
clergy, and the canting hypocrisy of swarms of 
professional proselytizers ; the ingenious machin- 
ery of an infamous legislation — what evils, in 
fact, that can afflict a nation were not made use 
of in the attempt to eradicate the Faith from the 
breasts of the Irish ? Yet every new onslaught 
of the enemy issued in a fresh triumph for 
Catholic Ireland. Satan wrested from her every- 
thing — but what which was the sole aim of all 
his efforts, her Faith ! And this her eternal, 
indestructible faith in God, has preserved 
together with itself her eternal, indestructible 
faith in her own Destiny and Nationality. 

No doubt, my friends, the subject of Ireland's 
unutterable woes has often forced itself upon 
your thoughts, and at the remembrance of her 
suffering the tear has sprung to your eye and 
your cheeks have burned and your breast heaved 
with just indignation at the inhuman wretches 
who, age after age, have lent themselves to Satan 
to be the instruments of his cruelty. But have 
you never looked beyond the physical evils of 
each day and hour ? Or have the wails of Erin's 
exiles, the dying moans of her outcast children, 
famishing by the wayside, and the bitter tor- 
ments of her legions of martyrs so stunned your 
souls as to render you incapable of realizing the 
moral grandeur of the scene ? Oh ! then you 



THE ISLE OF DESTINY. 



131 



have never conceived thoughts worthy of Ireland. 
You have seen, indeed, the rags and tatters by 
which the brutality of her foes has sought to 
humiliate her; but you have not discovered the 
divine glory which shines through them. You 
have seen the wretched workmanship of man ; 
but not the all-shaping, merciful hand of God. 
My mission, ladies and gentlemen, is one, not of 
hatred, but of charity ; hence, you must not 
expect to hear from me either a pathetic narra- 
tive of Ireland's wrongs or a vehement invective 
against her oppressors. Indeed, whilst I am very 
far from wishing to extenuate the infamy of 
those who have outraged and devastated the 
dear land of our fathers ; yet, instead of fostering 
rancor against them, I feel more disposed to 
bless their infatuated malice, which, under the 
supreme control of Providence, has so chastened 
and sanctified the nation as to make it the glory 
and model of Christendom. If Ireland, like the 
other nations had " rested on her lees, and had not 
been poured from vessel to vessel nor gone into 
captivity," she too would have been a 'profane 
nation, with her measure of worldly greatness 
and with worldly ambitions and aspirations; but 
she would not have attained that noble station in 
the Church to which she was predestined, and for 
which a long series of trials was the indispensable 
preparation. Who does not sympathize with St. 
Patrick under the lash of his captors? Yet 
Patrick's bondage was necessary for Ireland ; and 
Ireland's bondage was equally necessary for the 
world. She was led into captivity, not only that 
the world might have a brilliant illustration of the 
heroism of Christian patience and resignation, 
but especially that it might have— what it sorely 
needed — a nation of apostles. 



132 THE ISLE OF DESTINY. 



III. Yes, my friends ; Ireland, after withstand- 
ing for ages the open violence and the insidious 
wiles of Satan, was advanced to the highest 
station in the Church. "God," says St. Paul, 
''has placed in His Church, first of all. the 
Apostles;" and by an unparalleled grace the 
Irish people have been raised in mass to this sub- 
lime office. Other nations have, indeed, given 
birth to illustrious apostles. Spain may well be 
proud of St. Francis Xavier, Britain of St. Boni- 
face, and Italy of St. Augustine. But Ireland's 
glory is infinitely greater ; she has not sent forth 
isolated missionaries ; she has gone forth herself 
to the extreme ends of the earth. Oh, how often 
in these latter days has not that stem but salutary 
voice of God resounded through the island : " Go 
forth out of thy country and from thy kindred 
and out of thy father's house ; M and even though 
that high decree came disguised in the harsh 
tones of a bailiff, with what filial acquiescence in 
the Divine Will have not millions of her children 
bidden a sad farewell to their native land, their 
humble hearth and their dearest kindred, and 
gone forth to penetrate the wilds of America, the 
jungles of India and the sands of Australia ! 
Truly, "there are no speeches nor languages 
where their voices are not heard ; their sound is 
gone forth into all the earth." With unflagging 
zeal and superhuman endurance they have 
planted the faith under every star of heaven, 
making the desert and the wilderness bloom with 
all the beauty of Carmel and Saron. Oh ! Isle 
of the Saints, how sublime is thy destiny! 
Everything pertaining to thee is extraordinary 
and supernatural. Thou seemest to belong to a 
different world from this, thou art so unlike the 
other nations of the earth. Thou hast been 



THE ISLE OF DESTINY. 



133 



trampled on by every passer-by. Thy haughty 
invaders have disdained to call thee a nation. 
They have wished to sweep thee, with thy 
language, thy institutions and thy religion from 
the face of the globe. Yet, lo ! that which men 
despised and rejected, the same is become the 
corner-stone of the edifice of God. The more 
they trampled upon thee, the more deeply didst 
thou infix thy roots ; the more they shook thy 
aged trunk, the more rapidly didst thou shoot 
forth thy far-spreading branches. 

What is there in nature more beautiful to 
behold than a majestic forest-tree in the spring 
time, as it decks itself with the luxuriance of its 
foliage or blushes in the pride of its variegated 
blossoms? How you wish it could remain thus 
undisturbed ! But that ought not to be ; for 
thus it would live and die in selfish barrenness. 
To be of immortal usefulness, it must first be 
shorn of this beauty. The fierce equinoctial 
blasts must wrench its seeds from it, and spread 
them broadcast over the earth, and cover them 
from the wrath of winter with the leaves torn 
from its moaning branches. If, then, you return 
to view that noble plant after winds and storms 
have worked their w T ill upon it, you will hardly 
recognize in the dreary, naked wood the subject 
of your admiration but a few months ago. But 
wait a little longer. The winter will soon be 
past, and then will you see that the harm has not 
been serious, much less irreparable. It will bud 
and blossom again in a glorious resurrection ; 
and behold ! far and near a hundred saplings are 
springing up, each reproducing the vigor of the 
parent stock. In like manner, whilst nations 
which have enjoyed serene prosperity have, so 
far as the sacred cause of Revelation is concerned, 



^34 



THE ISLE OF DESTINY. 



lived and died, sluggish and inactive, Ireland, 
rudely shaken by every wind of heaven, has, 
without losing much at home, multiplied herself 
in every quarter of the globe. Why, then, ought 
we not to bless the whirlwind which has scattered 
our noble race? The tears of the exile were 
necessary to the propagation of the faith ; and 
whilst we sympathize sincerely with the suffer- 
ing individuals we should never lose sight of the 
Divine purpose which their sufferings have been 
predestined to effect. 

In the prosecution of this analogy which I 
have instituted between the life of St. Patrick 
and the history of his people, we discover another 
point of resemblance well worthy of considera- 
tion. St. Patrick was sent into captivity that he 
might become familiar with the language and 
customs of the people whom he was chosen to 
evangelize. So, too, the Irish, having been 
selected by the Lord for the important work of 
evangelizing a great part of the world, were sub- 
jected to the sway of that nation whose wonder- 
ful commercial enterprise has made her language 
the most generally spoken by the human species. 
How little did the English dream, when they 
were planting their proud banner on every 
remote corner of the globe, on every island and 
on every coast, that Providence was making use of 
their ambition for the advantage of a nation 
which they despised and of a religion which they 
detested ! Yet such the event proves to have 
been the case. England's discoveries and con- 
quests have simply paved the way for the Irish 
and their holy religion. England forced the 
Irish to drop the language of their fathers and 
adopt that of their oppressors. She was but too 
eager to offer them her ships and to induce them 



THE ISLE OF DESTINY. 



135 



to establish themselves in her colonies. But 
whereas England has lost, and is losing, her hold 
upon her colonial possessions, the Irish and their 
blessed faith remain, and will remain, please God, 
till the end of time ! 

Destiny seems to have taken a strange delight 
at every age of the world's history, in thus weld- 
ing together, or rather in tying neck and heel 
together, races which were apparently utterly 
incongruous and antagonistic in every element of 
their national character. Thus, in ancient times, 
refined and cultured Greece was forced into the 
rough arms of steel-clad Rome. Thus, too, in 
the Middle Ages, was fair and gentle Italia held 
a reluctant prisoner in the iron embrace of the 
unkempt Teuton. But in no instance has this 
misalliance of uncongenial races borne so strong a 
resemblance to what I am tempted to call a 
genuine case of political miscegenation as in the 
barbarous union of poor Erin with the over-bear- 
ing Sassanach. Ladies and gentlemen, was ever 
so sweet a Desdemona yoked for life with so 
repulsive a Moor? Or to what can we more 
aptly compare the revolting story of that un- 
blessed wedlock — the bare recital of which stirs 
the blood of all honorable men without the aid 
of rhetoric — than to the record of suffering and 
maltreatment endured by some defenceless wife 
who has been tied against her will to an insane, 
drunken wretch of a husband ? And yet such is 
the force of destiny, or rather such is the omnipo- 
tence of Christian faith and hope and patience, 
that it now really looks as if this ill-assorted pair 
were about to enter upon a long course of con. 
jugal felicity. Again for the millionth time, 
" the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the 
believing wife." The drunken husband is rapidly 



136 



THE ISLE OF DESTINY. 



sobering up. He is already penetrated with grief 
and shame at the sight of that bruised and bleed- 
ing victim of his long debauch. He is evidently 
going to take the pledge and to conduct himself 
henceforward like a gentleman. Erin, too, is 
discovering that her fierce Othello, under his 
burly, swarthy exterior and his uncouth, tardy 
gait, possesses many sterling and lovable qualities 
of mind and heart. The Irish question has 
already ceased to be one of hostile races. It has 
become a contest in which the English and the 
Irish democracy are in fraternal league to curb 
the overweening insolence of English and Irish 
aristocracy. In this mighty struggle the Irish 
Parnell and the English Gladstone unite in array- 
ing the battalioned masses of their countrymen 
against the unholy alliance, cemented by wealth, 
class privilege and bigotry, of the English Salis- 
burys and the Irish Clanricardes. One more 
gigantic but bloodless conflict, a conflict dreaded 
by the enemies, sighed for by the champions, of 
Irish liberty; one more manifestation by the 
English, Scotch and Welsh voters of their de- 
testation of British misrule in Ireland, and the 
reconciliation of two nations hitherto deemed 
irreconcilable will be complete. England re- 
formed and sobered and Ireland redeemed and 
regenerate — 

" With a senate once more in power watching o'er the 
the rights of that lone green isle,"— 

will march forward hand in hand to the realiza- 
tion of a common destiny. Let it not happen, 
ladies and gentlemen, that any wild words or 
rash deeds of ours, the terrible Irish-Americans, 
shall be the occasion of rekindling the dying 



THE ISLE OF DESTINY. 



137 



embers of international hatred. It is always a 
delicate and dangerous matter for anyone, even a 
member of the household, to interfere in the con- 
troversies between man and wife; for man and 
wife soon become reconciled to each other, and 
invariably they leave the would-be mediator out 
in the cold. 

The God of Destiny has created those two 
great sister islands and placed them on the high- 
way between two worlds, to be the seat of a 
mighty empire and the focus whence the blessed 
influence of Christian civilization shall radiate 
from pole to pole. If they have already, during 
the epoch of their lamentable dissensions accom- 
plished so much for the dissemination of religion 
and enlightenment, what we may not expect from 
their harmonious efforts ? Let them remain, then, 
for all time in equal, free and amicable confedera- 
tion. Whether they shall retain the nominal 
rule of their present O'Neill dynasty, or assume 
the form of a federal republic, is a domestic 
question which concerns themselves alone. The 
very dissimilarity of the British and Celtic char- 
acters will be mutually supplemental ; for British 
phlegm will serve to temper the Celtic fire. If 
Ireland needs the generous assistance of British 
enterprise and capital to rebuild her ruined indus- 
tries, England needs no less the eloquent states- 
manship of Irish Burkes and Grattans to en- 
lighten her counsels, and the genius of Irish 
Wellingtons to direct her armies. Above all, 
she needs Irish morality to lift her national 
policy out of the slough of selfish interests, and 
Irish faith to imbue her with the grand Catholic 
truth that religions are not to be created by Acts 
of Parliament. 

You have under your eyes, ladies and gentle- 



138 



THE ISLE OF DESTINY. 



men, a notable illustration of the happy results 
which follow upon the reconciliation and amalga- 
mation of the Celt and the Saxon. I know that 
frantic efforts are often made by distinguished 
visitors from England and by a select number of 
their admirers amongst us to represent our 
American civilization as purely Anglo-Saxon ; 
but we feel, and they feel too, that our national 
life in all its phases, political, social and religious, 
is something vastly larger and broader. It is, 
indeed, a remarkable phenomenon that whereas 
an Englishman immigrating amongst us is apt to 
remain for years cold, unsympathizing, unassimu- 
lated, an Irishman finds himself quite at home 
with our institutions and becomes enthusiastically 
American the moment he touches our shore. 
This is mainly owing to the largeness and catho- 
licity of his great religion, the only religion which 
is large enough, broad enough, deep enough, and 
strong enough to embrace and sustain the 
gigantic structure of this republic. What, in 
fact, has been the chief contribution made by the 
Irish in America to the resources of the 
nation? It is not, as some have said, their 
well-developed physical strength, though they 
have given us this too. A. more valuable gift 
has been that of their noble Catholic faith, a faith 
which in their souls is perfected almost to vision. 
Upon a nation quite engrossed by temporal 
pursuits, their tender Celtic loyalty to Jesus 
Christ has grafted the all-essential principle of 
the supernatural life. Not only have their stout 
arms built our railroads, felled our forests and 
worked our mines it has been the chief concern 
of this strange race of missionaries to erect in 
every city and village of the Union out of their 
scant earnings temples to the living God as bul- 



THE ISLE OF DESTINY. 



139 



warks against the encroaching materialism of the 
age. Their churches, whether magnificent cathe- 
drals or humble chapels, are so many centres of 
civilization, not for themselves and their children 
only, but for the mass of their fellow-citizens as 
well. I do not mean that there is an immediate 
prospect of this nation returning to visible relig- 
ious union with Christendom, much as I desire 
that blessing for my native land : nor am I claim- 
ing that the religion of the country is the monop- 
oly of the Irish Catholics. I claim for the Irish 
the glory of having firmly established and domi- 
ciled amongst us that same immortal Church 
which civilized the world in former ages, and 
which is as fully competent to-day to keep it 
civilized or if necessary, to civilize it once again. 
The beneficent influence of the Catholic Church 
is not exclusively shed upon those who believe in 
the divinity of her origin; it is diffused even 
upon those who remain without her pale, nay, 
upon her bitterest enemies ; but it is felt espe- 
cially by those who permit themselves to view her 
dispassionately ; and larger each day becomes the 
number of earnest souls who are drawn to study 
her with deep reverence ; who are outgrowing 
the infantile prejudices which they had imbibed 
from their nurses concerning her rites and dog- 
mas ; and who are looking to her for powerful 
aid in that world wide conflict which is rapidly 
thickening between spiritual truth and gross 
materialism. Even those who are not prepared 
to accept her awful mysteries, or who for one or 
other reason, dispute her claim to be the kingdom 
of Christ on earth, yet admire her as the sub- 
limest of poems, or the profoundest of philoso- 
phies or the most perfect product of human legis- 
lation. It is humanizing and refining even to 



140 



THE ISLE OF DESTINY. 



look upon the venerable Church of the ages ; as 
it is an education to peruse the work of a Homer, 
a Plato, or a Justinian merely as an intellectual 
recreation. Had the Catholic Church, ladies and 
gentlemen, performed no other service to the 
American people than by her august presence to 
widen their spiritual horizon, and, by bringing 
them into contact and sympathy with the religious 
life of humanity, to prevent that narrow, Chinese 
isolation of soul with which they were threatened, 
this alone would have entitled her to be consid- 
ered the greatest benefactor of the nation. Her 
coming has banished forever from amongst us the 
vanity once so prevalent of inventing home bred, 
crude, and local religions; for, as you may 
remember, the inventive genius of the Yankee 
used to delight in devising patent religions as 
well as patent medicines or sewing machines. 
But the countrymen of Morse and Edison have 
now wisely abandoned that foolish search after 
religious novelties ; and are rapidly convincing 
themselves either that the ancient Church of 
Christ is the divine organ of supernatural truth, 
or else that revealed religion in an antiquated 
illusion. It is certainly a great gain thus to have 
cleared up the religious atmosphere of the 
nation. 

Another remark I wish to make. You are 
aware that although Catholicism, so far as re- 
gards doctrine and organization, is essentially 
the same in all times and places, nevertheless, 
through the reaction of political and national 
idiosyncracies she seems when viewed from with- 
out to present a different appearance in different 
ages, circumstances or races. The Christian 
Church persecuted in the Catacombs is the same 
in essentials as the Church triumphant on the 



THE ISLE OF DESTINY. 



141 



thrones of Europe, yet with many accidental 
modifications of maxims and conduct. More- 
over, to a Spaniard the sin of heresy is a political 
crime which must be expiated by an auto da fe. 
To an Englishman a dissent from the religion 
established by statute is an act of treason to be 
punished by hanging and quartering. If the 
Spaniard becomes an infidel or the Englishman 
turns Protestant, his intolerance remains un- 
abated ; he simply exercises it upon Catholics 
instead of heretics. Now, I not only affirm that 
this principle of religious intolerance is revolting 
to the moral sense of all true American citizens, 
but I further affirm that it was from Irish Catho- 
licity that the great republic really imbibed the 
notion of the compatibility of the most fervent 
and uncompromising faith with the broadest 
practical toleration. The principle of religious 
toleration, although formally inserted in our 
Constitution by the statesmanship or indifference 
of the founders of our liberties, was of very slow 
growth in the popular consciousness. It is 
hardly necessary to remind you that when our 
fathers arrived here in considerable numbers, 
they found the noxious weed of Anglo-Saxon 
intolerance as rank and vigorous in the New 
World as they had experienced it in the Old. 
They were met with the old suspicions, the old 
prejudices, the old calumnies, often with the old 
persecutions and burnings and blows. Fortu- 
nately that which is recent and slow of growth in 
America has been the consistent tradition of 
ages in Catholic Ireland. From time immemo- 
rial the Irish people have again and again been 
the victims, but never the authors, of religious 
persecutions. The Church of our fathers is 
guiltless of human blood. She has begotten 



142 



THE ISLE OF DESTINY. 



zealous missionaries who have shed their blood 
for the conversion of their fellow-men ; but she 
never brought forth a Philip II., or a Duke of 
Alba, or an Elizabeth, or a Cromwell. She has 
no Edict of Nantes to explain away ; she has 
left no Bartholomew Massacre or Penal Laws as 
a legacy of eternal infamy to her children. 
Large-minded tolerance of religious differences 
has been the invariable badge of Irish Catholic- 
ity. In those parts of the island where the 
Catholics form the majority of the population 
the two great denominations dwell together in 
perfect amity. Religious disturbances are heard 
of only where the enemies of Catholicity have 
the cowardly power, backed by a foreign tyranny, 
to give and create trouble. In what country in 
the wide world could a Catholic Grattan or 
Parnell become the adored leader of a Protestant 
people? No, not in our own free America. I 
state a fact which is notorious when I assert that 
the Irish Catholics did not find, they established, 
with much labor, in this nation that sincere re- 
spect for honest divergences of religious opinions 
which is now loudly, but sometimes, I fear, 
hollowly proclaimed as the very jewel of our 
civilization. It certainly marks a great advance 
towards enlightenment upon our reminiscences 
of thirty years ago, that bigotry is no longer 
fashionable in high and public places, but must 
shrink from the sunlight into dark conventicles or 
veil her native deformity under specious fallacies. 

Now, ladies and gentlemen, I shall conclude, 
after asking pardon for having so sorely tested 
your patience, and complimenting you upon the 
extreme courtesy with which you have borne 
with me this evening. I have endeavored to 
read the destiny of Innisfail in the light of 



THE ISLE OF DESTINY. 



143 



Christian principles. I have wished to show you 
how far-reaching and enduring St. Patrick's work, 
has been. He is become, in very deed, the 
father of a great nation, whose characteristic trait 
has always been its inviolable fidelity to God. 
Like their apostle, the Irish people were great 
and holy in the days of their prosperity; their 
greatness and holiness were enhanced during the 
long ages of their trials; and they have arrived 
at the summit of spiritual glory now that God 
has scattered them far and wide to be the salt of 
the earth and the light of the world. 

Be mindful, therefore, of your exalted mission, 
Irishmen and children of Irishmen, and ponder 
well the formidable responsibility which that 
mission lays upon you. No doubt, our great 
race will achieve its supernatural destiny not- 
withstanding the fralities of ' individuals ; for 
though there may be weak and unworthy 
brethren amongst us, yet the mass of our people 
are, in practice and principle, true to their God, 
true to the sacred traditions of their ancestors, 
true to their Catholic faith. But it is well for 
us we should remember, that it was for no trivial 
purpose we or our fathers w r ere transplanted into 
this fertile region. Divine Providence has 
placed us here as on a mountain top, that men 
may have full scope to observe us, and from the 
study of our Christian virtues may be brought to 
know, to love and to embrace that Christian 
faith which inspires them. 

Meanwhile, let us offer up fervent prayers 
through the intercession of St. Patrick for the 
welfare of the consecrated land of our fathers. 
She has suffered enough ; she has been tried 
enough. "How long, O Lord, how long!" 
Already through the many rents wrought by the 



144 



THE ISLE OF DESTINY. 



stormy indignation of the civilized world in the 
wretched patchwork of this last of Irish Coercion 
Acts which is still weighing upon her, we can 
catch most certain glimpses of those happier days 
so long sighed for and so long deferred ; and 1 
am confident that when the noonday of her 
temporal glory shall arrive, Ireland will remain as 
she has hitherto remained, true to her destiny, 
" true to her faith." But of this I am sure : if, 
as we earnestly desire, peace with its abundance 
and Liberty with her manifold blessings return 
to nestle among her green hills, she will ever 
look back with an honest pride upon the ages 
of her sorrows : she will " rejoice for the days 
in which she was humbled, for the years when 
her eyes saw evils." 



THE BEAUTY OF THE CHURCH.* 



" Thy renown went forth among the nations for thy 
beauty ; for thou wast perfect with my beauty which I had 
put upon thee, saith the Lord God." — Ezechiel xvi. 14. 

I HAVE good reason to murmur at my fate, dear 
brethren, that this festivity which brings joy to 
you, should have imposed upon me a very heavy 
task, one to which I cannot address myself with 
any prospect of success. On this memorable 
day, when you are brought especially nigh to the 
lovely Bride of Christ — when with your own eyes 
you trace every feature of her beautiful counte- 
nance as she sits in her temple, clothed with the 
sun and decked with her bridal ornaments, to 
receive the homage of her children— when with 
your own ears you drink in the music of that 
melodious voice with which she enraptures the 
angelic hosts, as she pours forth her soul in the 
praises of her Lord— in this august presence, on 
this solemnity sacred to beauty and harmony in 
the divine worship, what increase of light or joy 
can the mind and the heart hope to glean from 
the feeble utterances of the human tongue? Is 
it possible, do you think, to put in words those 
complex emotions which overflow your breasts, 
now that your Holy Mother Church shows her- 
self to you again in the full perfection of her 
beauty, in the grandeur of her ritual unabridged 



*This sermon was preached at an organ-opening in St. 
Charles' Church, Philadelphia, Sept. 7, 1884. 

145 



146 



THE BEAUTY OF THE CHURCH. 



— more radiant, more majestic, more lovable than 
ever before? Or is it, my dear brethren, that 
after straining every energy in the pious en- 
deavor to show fitting honor to her who brought 
you forth to a higher life, after putting all other 
artists to the task, the architect, the musician, 
the painter, the sculptor, and discovering that, 
let them do their best, they cannot adequately 
realize and incorporate your conception of her 
beauty and loveliness — is it that you wish now to 
add a new trophy of her transcendent excellence 
in this ineffectual struggle of mine to translate 
that excellence into words ? Well, be it so ; it is 
not unpleasant to fail in such an undertaking; 
for the very failure will serve to give us a more 
exalted idea of thy unutterable perfection, fair 
Spouse of Christ. In the same spirit of self r 
sacrifice, therefore, which urged you, my 
brethren, to the erection and ornamentation of 
this magnificent house of God, I lay my feeble 
tribute upon the altar; and I shall esteem myself 
supremely fortunate if by any means I can aid in 
confirming you in the persuasion that, as the 
chisel and the pencil and the swelling flood of 
harmony, so, too, the loftiest flights of human 
eloquence must fall infinitely short of doing 
justice to the divine beauty of the Catholic 
Church. 

The reason why it is impossible to conceive, 
much less express, the beauty of our Blessed 
Mother Church, is nobly stated in this passage of 
Scripture w T hich I have chosen for the key-note 
of my sermon. She is perfect, not according to 
any ordinary type, but with the ineffable beauty 
of God, her Founder. Shadowy traces of God's 
beauty can, indeed, be discerned on all the works 
of His hands; for the very minutest ,and most 



THE BEAUTY OF THE CHURCH. 



H7 



transitory of His creations bear witness through 
their loveliness to the divinity of their origin. 
Not only do the heavens show forth the glory of 
God and the firmament declare itself the work 
of His hands ; but the little flowers of the field, 
which to-day are and to-morrow are cast into the 
oven, array themselves during their short exist- 
ence with a glory far exceeding that of a 
monarch's robe. Yet, glorious as are the lilies of 
the field, fair as is the face of mother-earth, grand 
as is the over-arching firmament bespangled with 
its dazzling gems, these and all other natural 
objects present but a very imperfect reflection of 
that Infinite Beauty ever ancient and ever new. 
There is, however, one work of the Almighty, 
called by a prophet by eminence His work — a 
work which He perfected with much toil and 
suffering, upon which He has imprinted the full 
lustre of His beauty — His mystical Body, the 
Church. As the face is the index of the soul — as 
the scholar's intellect beams forth through his 
eyes, and the saint's faith, love, chastity, meek- 
ness, group themselves visibly on the features 
of his countenance, so does the Holy Catholic 
Church reveal and reproduce the perfections of 
the Spirit who quickens her. To comprehend 
her, you must first comprehend Him ; for her 
perfections are His perfections, and her beauty 
emanates from Him. 

Here, then, we are brought face to face with 
the adorable attributes of God. Shall we draw 
back from the presumptuous task of analyzing 
our crude conceptions of His infinite majesty; 
or shall we go on wrapping up sentences in 
unskilful words? If, on the one hand, it is true 
that God inhabits light inaccessible, and that 
whosoever shall presume too curiously to scan 



I/i-S THE BEAUTY OF THE CHURCH. 



His majesty will be overpowered by His glory; 
yet, on the other hand, how can we learn to 
know Him and to love Him as we ought, unless 
we busy our little minds about Him, and train 
our tongues to stammer forth, as best we may, 
the thoughts which arise in our souls? We may 
with confidence launch out upon the boundless 
ocean of the Infinite, if humility guide the helm 
and reverence point the way. Laying aside 
hesitation, therefore, I return to the arduous task 
before me, and being told that the Church is 
perfect with the beauty of the Lord our God, I 
make bold to investigate in what consists the 
beauty of Him who is not only all-beautiful in 
His own divine essence, but who is, moreover, 
the sole Fount of all created beauties. 

If I asked you for a definition of beauty, you 
would probably answer with the old philosophers 
that " those things are beautiful which delight the 
senses," and you might instance a beautiful land- 
scape or a beautiful melody. But, as St. Augus- 
tine wisely remarks, " Things are not beautiful 
because they delight us ; on the contrary, they 
delight us because they are beautiful." What, 
then, is the intrinsic principle of beauty? 
The great Father whom I have just mentioned 
answers that it is " unity in variety." " Those 
things are beautiful, in which the mind discovers 
many symmetrical parts uniting in a consistent 
whole." * Unity amidst variety, therefore, is, if 
we believe St. Augustine, the soul of beauty, as 
well in material as in spiritual things. This is 



*This is St. Augustine's thought clothed in Wordsworth's 
phraseology. The saint's text reads that things are beautiful 
" ideo quia similes sibi partes sunt et aliqua copulatione ad unam 
convenientiam rediguntur." — De Vera Religione. Cap. 32. 



THE BEAUTY OF THE CHURCH. 1 49 



equivalent to saying that we are so constituted 
by Him who made all things in due weight and 
measure, as necessarily to love order, law, sym- 
metry, harmony, and instinctively to detest dis- 
cord and confusion. You will readily convince 
yourselves that the Saint's definition is accurate, 
by enumerating the different classes of objects 
which you denominate beautiful. 

Some objects of nature or art are pronounced 
beautiful, by reason of a judicious arrangement 
of colors, others on account of their perfect 
symmetry of form, others still because of their 
gracefully cadenced motion. More beautiful 
than any of these are the objects, — such as the 
stately forest-tree or the human form — in which 
these several beauties are blended. 

And to take an illustration from the subject- 
matter of to-day's celebration : the very simplest 
musical sound is essentially a " multitude in 
unity ;" for it is at once a melody and a har- 
mony ; a melody, because it is produced by a 
number of impulses striking the ear at regular 
intervals ; a harmony, because the principal tone 
is always accompanied by its natural harmonics. 
A skilful succession of musical sounds is beauti- 
ful, because the mind detects a unity of thought 
and measure running through the variety of 
tones; and the pleasure derived from melody is 
delightfully increased, when harmony supplies and 
duly subordinates the kindred notes. The per- 
fection of a musical performance depends, there- 
fore, upon the skill with which this multiplicity of 
elements is made to converge to unity. Hence, 
too, the organ reigns as monarch over the instru- 
ments of music ; for it contains within its bosom, 
and gives forth at the touch of a master's hand, 
the combined riches of all the others. 



150 THE BEAUTY OF THE CHURCH. 



Again, why do you call this material universe 
beautiful? Is it not because you discover, 
amidst the infinite variety of objects which com- 
pose it, a unity, a concord, a harmony, so 
conspicuous and so admirable, that you can 
almost fancy, with the ancients, that you hear a 
celestial symphony swelling up from its spheres, 
as they circle round? 

Now, passing over from the material into the 
spiritual world, we find ourselves in a realm 
which is still more beautiful; and, upon reflec- 
tion, we shall be convinced that the superiority in 
point of beauty of spirit over matter is owing to 
a more perfect verification of this principle of 
unity in variety. The soul one and indivisible 
amidst the variety of her powers and faculties, is 
ever busy arraying herself with new excellencies 
of every order. She is enabled through the 
senses to appropriate all the beauties of the ma- 
terial world. She gathers together, as in a store- 
house, whatever perfections are spread abroad 
upon the face of nature. She has the power of 
giving to ephemeral beauties a new and lasting 
existence in her memory. Her faculty of imag- 
ination enables her to create fresh beauties by 
combining at will those she finds in nature into 
novel and unexpected forms. Then, soaring far 
above this world of matter, she seizes the True 
and clings to the Good, thus clothing herself with 
beauties incomparably greater than those of sense. 

What, then, shall we say of the beauty of 
Almighty God ? He is at the same time Indi- 
visible Unity and All-comprehending Perfection. 
Whatever excellence, whatever power, whatever 
harmony is to be found in the material or the 
spiritual world is possessed by His simple essence 
in an infinitely higher degree. All created beau- 



THE BEAUTY OF THE CHURCH. 



ties are but faint images of His, whilst His 
beauty is essentially His own. They are frag- 
mentary ; His is full and perfect ; they are tran- 
sient, His is eternal. One act of His divine 
intellect surveys the vast domain of truth ; one 
act of His will embraces whatever is good, just, 
or holy. Yet these are not two acts, but one 
act ; for in Him infinite variety is reduced to 
absolute unity. And this imperfect knowledge 
which we gain through the Reason of God's inef- 
fable beauty, is supplemented by Revelation, 
which teaches us that the Infinite Being is at 
once Three and One — the same undivided God- 
head existing in three equal and distinct Persons, 
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Oh, 
let us sigh for the day, my dearly beloved, when 
the doors of this dark prison-house of the flesh 
which shuts out the clear vision of God shall be 
thrown open, and we shall see Eternal Beauty in 
its fountain-head ; the contemplation of which 
will inundate our minds with purest light, and 
our hearts with ecstatic bliss ! 

But in anticipation of that beatific vision, let 
us hold fast to the bond which unites us to 
Heaven ; for the seeds of what will eventually 
become vision, exist in us already as faith. The 
difference between the condition of God's chil- 
dren in Heaven and that of His children here on 
earth is simply this : that what the former see 
and enjoy, the latter believe and hope for. But 
God is no farther from us than he is from them ; 
He is the life and beauty of the Church militant 
as well as of the Church triumphant ; and this 
leads me directly to the point I have all along 
been making. 

Even those who entertain very imperfect and 
distorted notions about the Catholic Church, are 



152 



THE BEAUTY OF THE CHURCH. 



nevertheless forced to acknowledge that she 
possesses a beauty which is not of this world. 
Her renown has indeed gone forth among the na- 
tions for her beauty. Nay, having persuaded 
themselves that she is a thing of evil transformed 
into an angel of light, they hate her all the more 
for the very effulgence of her glory. They are 
blind to the patent fact that substantial and 
enduring beauty, such as hers, can be nothing 
else than the native splendor of Truth. How- 
ever, her awful supernatural beauty is the first 
quality which strikes the mind, alike of her lov- 
ing children and of her mortal foes. She is the 
very embodiment of unity in variety, and it 
needs not faith to perceive it. It is universally 
allowed in her acknowledged title of Catholic. 
Woven from the top throughout without seam 
or patchwork, she embraces all time, all space, all 
truth, all sanctity within her ample folds. And 
lest it be said that excess of love causes us to 
exaggerate her beauty, let us range ourselves for 
a moment with the " nations "—with the cold, 
unfriendly world— and hear w r hat they are forced 
to say in her favor. 

In the first place, it is confessed, it is undeni- 
able, that she unified the human race. Mankind, 
before she appeared among them, had no gen- 
eral bond of union ; they were separated from 
each other by as many insuperable barriers as 
there were races, tongues and social and religious 
institutions. The haughty Greek and the impe- 
rious Roman looked upon the tribes that sur- 
rounded them as inferior cattle, born for servitude. 
To the holy Catholic Church was reserved the 
glory of putting unity and order into this 
shapeless mass of humanity by preaching and 
organizing universal brotherhood. To her we 



THE BEAUTY OF THE CHURCH. 1 53 



owe it that there exist no longer any fatal distinc- 
tion of Gentile and Jew, of circumcision and un- 
circumcision, of Barbarian and Scythian, of bond 
and free ; for Christ is all and in all. Her most 
virulent enemies cannot suppress their admiration 
of her majestic stature, even whilst they make 
the most frantic efforts — the heretic with his 
tracts, the atheist with his sophistries, the perse- 
cutor with his bayonets — to lacerate or destroy 
her. Unchecked by natural or social barriers — 
by mountain and sea, or by national and racial 
prejudices — her empire stretches from pole to 
pole. Unspotted as the snow-white dove she 
embraces with equal affection every soul for 
which Christ died. One and unvaried is her 
speech, yet she is heard with equal facility by 
each man in his own tongue wherein he was 
born. Nature presents no parallel to this ; for 
it is beyond the grasp of natural forces to com- 
bine so many discordant elements. 

Then, drawn nearer to this matchless work 
of Omnipotence, men begin to scrutinize her 
divine constitution ; and they find in it, what can 
be seen nowhere else on this earth, the perfect 
realization of the statesman's ideal — the strong- 
est possible authority allied with the largest pos- 
sible liberty. Founded in unity, based upon the 
immovable Rock of Peter, she is preserved by the 
gentle sway of her well-organized Hierarchy 
from the confusion of anarchy; whilst the gospel 
of liberty, which is her birthright, enforced and 
expounded by long usage and salutary statutes 
secures her from the tyranny of human ca- 
price. 

And when men enter her temple and study her 
inner workings, their sense of her beauty grows 
with their knowledge of her. What can exceed 



154 



THE BEAUTY OF THE CHURCH. 



the harmony of her Liturgy, ever one and ever 
varied? She offers not a different sacrifice each 
day, but always the same Eternal Victim ; and 
yet this perpetual offering seems ever to pre- 
sent a new aspect, and affects us differently at 
different seasons. At one time it is a song of 
triumph ; at another a cry for pardon ; at a third 
a prayer for the dead. So that when the circle 
of the ecclesiastical year has closed, there appears 
to be no feeling of the soul which it has not 
influenced, no circumstance of life which it has 
not soothed or upheld, or moderated. 

Then men turn to examine the dogmas of 
Holy Church ; and here again they are con- 
fronted with the same phenomenon of extreme 
simplicity combined with far reaching compre^ 
hensiveness. Their pride may not be prepared 
to submit to her authority ; they may feel an 
aversion to certain points of her teaching ; but 
they cannot deny that her doctrines are thor- 
oughly consistent and thoroughly intelligible ; 
so consistent that they must all stand or fall 
together ; so luminous as to impart to the dull- 
est and rudest of her children ample knowledge 
about subjects of prime importance to mortal 
man. It is also to be observed with regard to 
the doctrines of Holy Church, that they not only 
shed a brilliant light upon the direct objects of 
revelation, but, moreover, exert a diffused influ- 
ence upon things which lie properly within the 
range of human reason. What before was seen 
in faint and dubious twilight, is now discerned 
with greater ease and accuracy. How many im- 
portant truths regarding nature, the soul, the 
Creator, the standard of right and wrong, now 
held and proclaimed even by unchristian thinkers 
were first brought out in bold relief and cleared 



THE BEAUTY OF THE CHURCH. 



155 



from serious errors by this diffused light of 
Christianity ! 

Again, who is so biased against the Church, or 
so depraved at heart, as not to admire the beauty 
of her moral code ? What a dreary, meaningless 
bundle of inconsistencies was human life, with its 
conflicting passions, ambitions, and aspirations 
until Holy Church put order into the chaos by 
teaching men the one true end of their existence, 
by setting before them Divine and human exem- 
plars of perfection, and by aiding them in the 
task of harmonizing their various faculties 
through the agency of her precepts and her 
sacraments! And though her precepts are many 
and several are her sacraments, yet her precepts 
are but branches of the one great law of charity, 
which her sacraments were instituted to aid us in 
fulfilling. Now, if you are to judge a tree by its 
fruits, estimate the power and beauty of the 
Catholic Church by a contemplation of her sanc- 
tity as incorporated in her masterpieces. What 
work of the statuary or the painter can compare 
in excellence with one of her saints ? If you 
seek the embodied ideal of moral beauty behold 
it there, not in marble or on canvas, but in the 
human heart. What a happy blending of all 
that is gentle and delicate with the strong and 
the majestic ! With no excellence omitted, with 
nothing disproportionate, throughout the whole 
being there reigns the quiet harmony of law ! 
" O, how beautiful is the chaste generation with 
glory ; for the memory thereof is immortal ; 
because it is known both with God and with 
man ! " And then when we compare saint with 
saint, the sainted pauper with the sainted em- 
peror, — the sainted hermit with the sainted 
Bishop ; when we survey the long line of holy 



156 THE BEAUTY OF THE CHURCH. 



martyrs, confessors, virgins, penitents, prelates, 
who in their days pleased God and were found 
just, how it delights the mind to discover, amidst 
the endless variety of circumstances, of duties, of 
achievements, of trials, the unity of purpose, 
endeavor, and character. 

Unbelieving enemies may, and must, admire 
the multiform beauties that adorn the Church ; 
and so, too, are they forced to marvel at the 
immortality of her charms. She alone, of things 
terrestrial, knows not the wrinkles, the gray hairs, 
the feebleness of old age. The most ancient of 
existing institutions, she is also the most vigor- 
ous. She has overcome the shocks and revolu- 
tions of time with the same ease with which she 
surmounted the obstacles of space. Unchanged 
and unchangeable, she is the sole bond of unity 
between the present and the hoary past, — the one 
eternal purpose running through the ages, and 
proclaiming brotherhood between Abel the just 
and the infant newly born. 

All these things, brethren, are matters not of 
faith, but of sight and touch. Yet to the 
unbeliever they are inexplicable mysteries. He 
sees them, feels them ; but he understands them 
not. As the atheist sees as well as we, — some 
of them better than we, — the beautiful harmony 
of nature, sees that the world from end to end is 
one, and yet is blind to the Cause and secret 
spring of this wonderful concord, so the unbe- 
liever or heretic admires, indeed, the separate 
beauties of the Catholic Church, — her universality, 
her organization, her ceremonial, the music of her 
doctrines, the glittering array of her saints, her 
immortality ; and yet, oh ! blindness ! he will 
grasp at any absurd hypothesis, or give up any 
attempt at explanation, rather than confess that 



THE BEAUTY OF THE CHURCH. 



157 



she is the lovely Tabernacle of God with men, the 
mystical Body of Christ, perfect with the beauty 
of the Lord God. To harmonize her beauties, to 
comprehend how she can be possessed of so many 
apparently irreconcilable excellencies, requires 
Faith, which reveals the hidden Divinity who 
animates her. As for us, her children, however 
much she may excite our love and admiration, 
she can never be to us an object of wonderment 
or perplexity ; for we know that into her have 
been transfused the attributes of the Most High. 
We are not astonished that she should have oc- 
cupied the whole earth ; for she would not be 
divine if she were not immense. Neither are we 
surprised at the stainlessness of her morals or the 
lucidity, coherency and comprehensiveness of her 
dogmas, for she is actuated by the Spirit of 
Sanctity and the Spirit of Truth. Who shall won- 
der at her stability and unchangeableness, unless 
he who has lost sight of the fact that she is the 
organ of Him who is styled " the King of Ages, 
Immortal, Invisible, the only God ? " 

Thus the several beauties of Holy Church are 
reduced to their one original source, — her intimate 
union with the Almighty. View her from this 
standpoint, avow in the language of my text 
that she is perfect with the beauty of the Lord of 
Truth and Holiness; and to your mind there 
arises instantly a great light, — a light which not 
only reduces to order and harmony all the phe- 
nomena of the supernatural world, but which, 
moreover, systematizes natural truth, and vests 
human life with a deep and consoling significance. 
Deny that her beauty is the refulgence of Truth, 
and you untune the grand harmony of the uni- 
verse; you shatter into a thousand disconnected 
fragments what she had combined into a consist- 



158 THE BEAUTY OF THE CHURCH. 



ent whole. You know, my brethren, that the 
distinguishing excellence of a great fundamental 
truth is the extreme simplicity with which it ex- 
plains a multiplicity of facts. Let error glitter 
as she may, she cannot imitate this characteristic 
of Truth. Take an illustration from astronomy. 
So long as men erroneously believed the earth to 
be the centre of the solar system, they found a 
great difficulty in making even the few facts then 
known fit into their theory ; and every new dis- 
covery involved fresh difficulties. But when 
they discovered their fundamental error; when 
they made the sun, and not the earth, the centre 
round which the planets revolve, then all diffi- 
culties vanished ; and now every fresh discovery 
in this department of science adds new lustre and 
confirmation to the received theory, by finding in 
it 'so ready an explanation. So, brethren, put, as 
the centre of all things, God working in and 
through His Church, and all those mysteries 
which infidels talk so much , about, mysteries of 
nature, mysteries of history, mysteries of human 
life, receive their only consistent and intelligible 
explanation. This then is the characteristic, in- 
defeasible, incommunicable beauty of the Catho- 
lic Church. As the builder of your noble organ, 
by the apt combination of so many mute and 
dissimilar elements made one mighty instrument, 
replete with majestic music, so did Holy Church, 
but on a grander scale, combine all things in the 
realm of nature and in the realm of grace into 
one glorious organ with which to sing an eternal 
Hosanna to her Almighty Lord. This beauty is 
not from man but from her God. " All the glory 
of the king's daughter is within." It is not in 
the power of man to add anything to it or de- 
tract anything from it. No mortal can add one 



THE BEAUTY OF THE CHURCH. 



159 



cubit to her stature or one dogma to her 
creed. 

Nevertheless, brethren, besides that essential, 
internal beauty of which we have been hitherto 
discoursing, and which, as we have seen, she de- 
rives immediately from the Spirit of Truth and 
Sanctity who illumines her, there is an extrinsic 
beauty which it is in our power to confer upon 
her. What, though we cannot improve her 
lovely features! Can we not "gird her about 
with fine linen, and clothe her with fine gar- 
ments?''' Can we not " deck her also with orna- 
ments, and put bracelets on her hands, and 
ear-rings in her ears, and a beautiful crown upon 
her head?" (Ez. xvi.) Can we not, to the ut- 
most of our poor means, build her suitable 
tabernacles in which she may rest during her 
s journeying through this desert to meet her 
Bridegroom? Can we not beguile her tedious 
pilgrimage with the music so sweet to her ears, — 
the praises of Him she adores? Yes ; this is our 
filial privilege ; and you, brethren, merit great 
commendation for the dutiful affection which 
you have constantly displayed from the first day 
of your corporate existence until this glorious 
morning when you crown your long labors with a 
hymn of triumph. And this leads me to remark, 
brethren, that the ceremony which engages us 
to-day is a fitting symbol of the work which the 
rising generation seems called upon to perform. 
The preliminary labors which strained your ener- 
gies and those of your fathers, whilst you were 
few, and, needy, and sojourners in this land, — the 
gathering together of the scattered faithful into 
parishes, the building up of churches and schools, 
the clearing away of spiritual wildernesses, and 
filling up of spiritual marshes, the laying out of 



l6o THE BEAUTY OF THE CHURCH. 



God's vineyard " in hunger and thirst, in fasts 
and vigils, in cold and 7takedness" is now drawing 
towards completion. What, then, remains for us 
to do? Ours shall be the task of decoration and 
ornamentation, of adorning the landscape and re- 
claiming to artistic beauty the mountain slope 
and the valley. The indomitable zeal of our 
predecessors laid the foundations of the faith 
deep and firm ; they erected the solid framework, 
and from their consecrated ashes arises the earn- 
est appeal to us who profit by their labors to 
complete and embellish what they have founded. 
The numerous Catholic Churches throughout the 
land left spireless by their builders admonish the 
youthful generation that much still remains to be 
done, and that their watchword must ever be 
Excelsior. 

This is no vain theory of mine, brethren ; it is 
the formal teaching of the Holy See. The Vicar 
of Christ, with that divine instinct which makes 
him the quick, unerring judge of the true posture 
of affairs and the actual exigencies of each age, 
proclaims that the time has arrived when the 
Church in this country must shake off the 
chrysalis of her missionary existence and spread 
her wings to heaven in the full maturity of her 
beauty. He demands, first of all, that to the un- 
wavering faith, the unflagging zeal, the sincere 
piety and stern morality of the early missionaries, 
their successors in the sanctuary shall join a pro- 
fundity and comprehensiveness of learning, sacred 
and profane, and a fluency and elegance of 
speech not to be expected in men whose noble 
lives were spent in rugged toil. The age of 
David, the man of war and struggle, has passed 
away, ushering in that of peaceful Solomon with 
its learned leisure. May the change redound to 



THE BEAUTY OF THE CHURCH. ■ l6l 



the glory of the Lord ! May the priests of the 
future be as loyal, as earnest, as true to their vo- 
cation, as were the men of God whose strenuous 
labors have purchased for the Church the present 
abundance of peace. 

But the Universal Pastor does not confine his 
solicitude to the embellishment of the sanctuary. 
He directs us to clear away those blemishes 
which have so often disfigured the music of the 
Church by impairing the harmony of her liturgy. 
It is surely needless to spend many words in ex- 
plaining to you, my friends, the importance of 
music in the public worship of the Church; for 
the distressing accident which silenced your 
grand organ some months ago has thrown a long, 
lenten gloom over the greater part of your eccle- 
siastical year. Your neighbors round about you 
sang their joyful " Allelujas " at Easter, their 
touching "Veni Creator" at Pentecost, their 
grateful " Lauda Sion " on the Festival of the 
Blessed Sacrament ; but you were dumb and 
paralyzed, for your harp was hanging unstrung 
upon the willow. No one will ever be able to 
persuade you, my brethren, that music does not 
wonderfully enhance the beauty of the Catholic 
worship. 

But if St. Augustine's doctrine is correct, music 
in the Church is not a thing of beauty unless it 
be in full accord with the rest of the service. 
We enter the sacred temple with one object only 
— to give public worship to the Lord our God ac- 
cording to the rite of the Holy Roman Church. 
Whatever furthers this object is good and beauti- 
ful ; whatever interferes with it is inopportune 
and discordant. Not harmony, but confusion 
ensues, when the musician, forgetful of his proper 
function, uses his magic art, not to draw our 
ir 



1 62 THE BEAUTY OF THE CHURCH. 



souls closer to Jesus on the altar, not to invest 
the sacred text with the charms of rhythm, but 
to seduce our thoughts from the Divine Office, 
or to drown the inspired word in a tumultuous 
flood of sound. At an earlier stage of our his- 
tory, we might overlook many imperfections of 
this kind ; for were we not doing the best we 
could, with the material at hand, to testify our 
love for Holy Church? But now the Supreme 
Pontiff gently exhorts us to remove all incon- 
gruities, and present the Clean Oblation "in 
holy becomingness. ,, And since the music most 
pleasing to Almighty God is the grand united 
cry of His people rising like " the voice of many 
waters," I trust the day is not far distant when 
the entire congregation will join in singing 
" Glory to God on high/' and in making public 
profession of their faith in the Ever-Blessed Trin- 
ity in the simple but majestic strains of the 
Church's own music — the Gregorian Chant. 

In conclusion, brethren, let us not forget, 
whilst we thus load our beloved mother with the 
glittering pomp of bracelets, and ear-rings, and 
jewelled crowns, that the dearest and brightest 
gems of a mother are her own lovely features, as 
mirrored in her children. Sweeter to the ears of 
Mother Church than the mightiest symphony of 
the sublimest masters, is that harmony of uni- 
versal charity which makes her vast household 
one, as she and her Bridegroom are one, as Christ 
and his Father are one. More beautiful to her than 
the most entrancing melody is the unruffled cur- 
rent of the Christian's life, as it floats along to 
its graceful cadence in a happy death. O rest 
not, my brethren, in the vain attempt to repro- 
duce your mother's features in cold marble, on 
lifeless canvas, on harps and. organs that make a 



THE BEAUTY OF THE CHURCH. 163 



sound which beats the air and dies away. Stamp 
them rather upon your immortal souls. God-like 
attribute communicated to man ! As the dia- 
mond, upon exposure to the sun, seizes his rays 
and imprisons them within itself, making their 
brilliancy its own, so does the human spirit, by 
long, intimate union with God's Church, grad- 
ually clothe itself with her dazzling beauty, be- 
coming one with her, or rather with Him who is 
her life and soul — Jesus Christ, the brightness of 
the Father's glory. This, therefore, shall be our 
constant endeavor: under the guidance and 
direction of Holy Church so to attune all the 
powers and faculties of our soul, all the passions 
and affections of our heart, as to render ourselves 
fit to swell that angelic harmony which ever 
surges up before the throne of the Eternal, Tri- 
une God ; to Whom may all living creatures give 
glory, and honor, and benediction for ever and 
ever. Amen. 



ON FORGIVING INJURIES. 



" If thou offer thy gift at the altar, and there thou remem- 
ber that thy brother hath anything against thee, leave there 
thy gift before the altar and go first be reconciled to thy 
brother, and then coming thou shalt offer thy gift." — Matt. 
v. 23, 24. 

The chief motive which determined the Son of 
God to take upon Himself our human flesh, the 
great task which He labored and died to achieve, 
was the re-establishment upon this earth of the 
reign of peace. As " Prince of Peace," the 
prophet Isaias greeted Him from afar; "In terra 
pax, peace on earth," was the joyful hymn with 
which the angels announced His appearance ; 
and Our Lord Jesus Himself in His last solemn 
discourse to His disciples on the threshold of 
His Passion bequeathed to His faithful little 
flock — as the only inheritance He had to leave 
them, as the sole fruit of His life-long toils and 
sufferings — His Peace : " Peace I leave with you, 
my peace I give unto you." 

Now this peace which Our Redeemer purchased 
for us at the price of His sacred life was two- 
fold ; for He died that He might put an end to a 
twofold war. He had found mankind at im- 
pious war with their Maker, and, moreover, 
engaged in deadly feuds amongst themselves. 
Indeed this intestine discord was but the inevit- 
able consequence of the rebellion against God. 
For since God is the sole author of harmony, the 
sole fountain of peace and charity, it is evident 

164 



ON FORGIVING INJURIES. 



I6 5 



that apart from God neither harmony, peace nor 
charity can dwell. There was a happy time 
when love and peace reigned on earth, that 
golden era described by Moses and chanted even 
by heathen poets, when God delighted to con- 
verse with man as a friend speaks to His friend. 
But, alas ! my brethren, that blessed state was of 
short duration. Man rebelled against God , he 
severed the sweet bonds of charity which had 
united earth to heaven. Forthwith the Spirit of 
love,- the Spirit of joy, of peace, of patience, of 
benignity, of longanimity, of mildness torsook 
this earth ; and the foul spirit of hate, of envy, of 
suspicion, of selfishness rushed in and took up its 
dwelling in the human heart. As our body dis- 
solves into dust when the animating soul departs, 
so when divine love fled from the earth did 
human society straightway give symptoms of 
rapid disintegration. As if to enforce the great 
truth that there can be no true love among men 
when the love of God is extinct, we find it re- 
corded that the first fruits of the apostasy of 
Adam were envy and fratricide* 

And now, conversely, as the love of God is the 
source and motive of the love of our brethren, so 
the love of our brethren is the obvious and infal- 
lible test of our love of God. Hence we are au- 
thorized to conclude that if we duly love our 
brethren we duly love God. But if we love not 
our brethren whom we see, it were foolish to 
flatter ourselves that we sincerely love God 
Whom we see not. Without the aid of God's 
grace we cannot duly love either God or our 
brethren ; but a love inspired by divine grace 
necessarily embraces our brethren as well as our 
God. If, then, you are anxious to ascertain 
whether you are really reconciled to your Maker, 



l66 ON FORGIVING INJURIES. 



the most expeditious method is to search your 
conscience and find out whether you are at peace 
with all mankind. If your soul entertains ill-will 
towards a single member of the human family, 
be certain that it is possessed, not by the Spirit 
of God, — the spirit of joy, love and peace, — but 
by Satan, the spirit of discord, hatred and re- 
venge. It is clearly and forcibly proclaimed on 
every page of the Gospels that whosoever ex- 
cludes any of his brethren from his charity 
thereby excludes himself from the Kingdom of 
God. For such a one Christ died in vain. Let 
him offer his choicest gifts at the altar of God, 
nay, let him deliver his body to be burned ; his 
offering, be it ever so great or heroic, is not ac- 
cepted. God regards it as if stained with blood : 
" For he that hateth his brother is a murderer. ,, 
Claim none of the privileges of the children of 
God, my brethren, until, so far as in you lies, you 
have become thoroughly reconciled to all your 
adversaries. " If thou offer thy gift at the altar 
and there thou remember that thy brother hath 
anything against thee " — learn, O Christian, what 
thou shalt do : thou shalt draw no distinctions 
between slight and grievous transgressions ; 
neither shalt thou deliberate whether thou art 
the aggressor or the aggrieved : no, " Thou shalt 
leave there thy offering before the altar, and go 
be reconciled to thy brother, and then coming 
thou shalt offer thy gift." "But," you say, " let 
my brother wait ; my first and highest duty is to 
worship God. Let me, therefore, finish this para- 
mount act of religion. I shall come to terms 
with my brother afterwards." No : vade, recon- 
cili, avi ! go; be reconciled! Thou art in no fit 
condition to appear before God. Thy hands are 
still unwashed ; and He rejects with loathing thy 



ON FORGIVING INJURIES. 167 



blood-stained gift. He will wait : thy offering 
can wait , but do thou go, be reconciled ! 

My dear brethren, a law promulgated with 
such emphasis and sanctioned with such severity 
is not to be trifled with ; and it is painful to 
notice that this most prominent and characteris- 
tic ordinance of the moral code of Jesus Christ is 
so little observed by the bulk of the faithful. 
When we consider, therefore, the importance of 
the precept and the general conduct so disregard 
ful of it, we shall conclude, I think, that no sub- 
ject can possess a juster claim on our attention 
during this penitential season. In the endeavor, 
therefore, to root out whatever petty grudges, or 
venomous hatreds, or seeds of scandalous quar- 
rels may have settled in your breasts, I shall lay 
before you a few of the considerations which 
urge us to the observance of this law so dear to 
Christ ; and I pray the Divine Spirit, Whose es- 
sence is love, to pour forth such grace into your 
hearts, as shall inflame what is cold, and soften 
what is hard, that before leaving this sacred spot 
you may begin to entertain more charitable feel- 
ings towards those you call your enemies, and 
may sincerely love and embrace as a brother 
every one who has been taught to invoke God as 
his Father. 

To love those who injure us, to honor those 
who insult and despise us, to do good to those 
that hate us and to pray for those that persecute 
and calumniate us, is so sublime an imitation of 
the perfections of God Who compels His sun to 
shine with equal brilliancy upon the bad and the 
good, and Who raineth alike upon the just and 
the unjust that we should look for it in vain 
among the benighted heathen. Our fallen 
nature, which is so fertile in producing thorns 



ON FORGIVING INJURIES. 



and thistles, cannot unless well cultured by super- 
natural grace bring forth so heavenly a plant as 
heart-felt forgiveness. And for the very reason 
that the precept of forgiving injuries is so directly 
opposed to the promptings of flesh and blood, it 
was chosen by our Lord from among the other 
articles of His law as the special and crucial test 
of the loyalty of His followers. His other in- 
junctions have been inserted or recommended in 
their codes and philosophies by human lawgivers 
and teachers; He alone commands that we 
should love our bitterest enemies and condone 
the most atrocious of injuries. Yet that which 
Our Lord enjoins upon us ought not to be pro- 
nounced impossible or impracticable. Indeed, 
innumerable instances are on record which abun- 
dantly prove that this great duty, so far from 
being beyond the attainment of human nature, 
as the unbelievers and the worldy-minded assert, 
becomes quite easy, and almost natural, to the 
sincere Christian. 

Those who affirm that this law of Christ is 
contrary to the instincts of human nature do not 
contend that it is repugnant to the dictates of 
our reason but to the suggestions of our passions, 
— that it demands from us so complete a mas- 
tery over our lower selves as it is wild and vision- 
ary to expect. We, my brethren, maintain, on 
the contrary, that it is quite feasible, with God's 
assisting grace, so to fortify our reason with 
spiritual food as to enable it to subdue the baser 
emotions of our soul. This spiritual food is first 
of all humble prayer, and, secondly, an earnest 
meditation upon the motives which urge us to 
fulfilment of this great law, motives most forci- 
ble to convince the understanding and to touch 
the heart. Let us, then, after invoking the aid 



ON FORGIVING INJURIES. 



169 



of the God of mercy, recall very briefly the chief 
motives with which He has commended to our 
loyalty this sacred duty. 

I. The first motive which offers itself to our 
mind and which alone is quite sufficient to ren- 
der us incapable of harboring feelings of hatred 
and vindictiveness, is the adorable example of 
our Blessed Lord. Christ, my brethren, was not 
one of those who preach and do not. If during 
His mortal career he constantly inculcated char- 
ity and forgiveness, He imparted the force of a 
brilliant illustration to His preaching by His 
own conduct. Meekness under exasperating con- 
tradictions was the salient feature of His divine 
character. " When we strive to conjure up the 
image of our dear Lord/' says St. Bernard, " what 
occurs to our imagination but the figure of a 
Divine Being, meek and patient, enduring every 
insult; pardoning every injury; silent when 
reviled ; praying for those who slandered Him," 
And, indeed, to bear insults, persecutions and 
calumnies was His lot from the very dawn to the 
bitter ending of His mortal career. Scarcely 
had He appeared on earth when the jealousy 
of an impious king sought to compass His 
destruction. How did our Lord revenge Him- 
self on the foolish wretch ? Jesus held in 
his infant hands the thunderbolts of heaven. 
Legions of mighty angels hovered over Him, 
obedient to the slightest indication of His 
will. How, then, did He punish the presump- 
tion of Herod? Oh, how little we are acquainted 
with the character of our Saviour ! Sooner than 
take a revenge so easy to omnipotence, He pre- 
ferred to expose His infant limbs, and His lov- 
ing .Mother, and His faithful old foster-father 
to the fury of winter, and withdraw into a strange 



i ;o 



ON FORGIVING INJURIES. 



and distant land. This same mild, forbearing 
spirit He displayed throughout His whole life. 
One day, St. Luke tells us, He went into a cer- 
tain city of the Samaritans to preach to them 
the word of life. But they would not receive 
Him, and rudely cast Him out of their city. 
Then His disciples were filled with indignation. 
" Lord," they cried, " wilt thou that we com- 
mand fire to come down from heaven and con- 
sume them ! " But Jesus, who had borne in 
silence the affronts of the unbelievers, could not 
let pass unrebuked the impatience of His fol- 
lowers. Turning to them, He said : " You know 
not of what spirit you are." It was, however, 
only when the combined malice of men and 
demons had reached its culmination, by scourg- 
ing the Lamb of God, and spitting upon Him, 
and nailing him to the cross, that our Lord's 
forgiving spirit shone forth in its fullest splendor. 
"When he was reviled," says St. Peter, "He 
did not revile : when He suffered, He threatened 
not ; but delivered Himself up to him who 
judged Him unjustly." Behold your model, my 
dearly beloved. You glory in being Christians, 
— followers of Christ. But do you resemble your 
Master in this particular ? Have you clothed 
yourselves with that gentleness of spirit which so 
distinguished Him ? I know not, of course ; but 
if you have indeed learned to imitate the meek- 
ness of your Saviour, you are glorious exceptions 
to the general body of Christians, who are scarcely 
less prone to anger and eager for revenge, than 
the heathen to whom the cross has not been 
preached. 

II. The second motive which I shall set before 
you in order to persuade you to forgive and for- 
get all the wrongs you may have suffered, is the 



ON FORGIVING INJURIES. 



171 



consideration that the welfare of Chrises king- 
dom demands this sacrifice of our feelings. We 
all are, or ought to be, members of the same 
mystical body, the Church, and, therefore, a very 
strict obligation lies upon us of making a holo- 
caust of our personal interests and feelings upon 
the altar of the general welfare. Mutual .forbear- 
ance is indeed, requisite in every form of society. 
Man is at all times a poor miserable being, 
subject to caprices and passions, sinning often 
through malice, oftener still through inadvertence 
and ignorance. Such we are, and such, in a 
greater or less degree, are our neighbors. When, 
therefore, two or more such beings enter into any 
kind of society, they must make up their minds 
to bear each other's weaknesses ; for otherwise 
all social intercourse between man and man must 
speedily come to an end. If you are seeking a 
friend, a partner, a consort, so perfect as shall 
give you no occasion for complaint, you are seek- 
ing what cannot be found, and, moreover, what 
you are not yourself. Now this spirit of mutual 
forbearance is in a special manner demanded of 
the members of the Church of God. The Church 
joins us to one another in a nobler, holier, more 
intimate union than can be effected by any 
merely natural society. Losing in a measure our 
individual existence, we are made, St. Paul 
teaches, members one of the other; and, as each 
member of our body works not for itself, but for 
the whole body, so all the members of the Church 
of Christ are expected to live and act, not for 
themselves, but for the sacred body, whose mem- 
bers they are. Hence Christ in His wisdom has 
ordained that our common salvation shall be the 
achievement of our united efforts. This we 
acknowledge when we profess our belief in the 



172 ON FORGIVING INJURIES. 



Communion of Saints. Not only do the prayers, 
the fasts, the vigils, the alms-deeds of all the ser- 
vants of God throughout the globe accrue to the 
spiritual benefit of each member of the great Cath- 
olic Church, but furthermore as we are aided by the 
good works of all the faithful, so, too, we are 
aided by their very defects. Consider what a 
wide field for merit would be closed against us, if 
all our neighbors Avere so perfect as to give us no 
opportunity for triumphing over wrongs, affronts, 
insults, or calumnies. What would then become 
of fully one half of the great Christian virtues? 
What room would there be any longer for exer- 
cising the virtue of patience? or of meekness? or 
of prudence? or of self-control? Thus in the 
mysterious workings of Providence all things, 
pleasant and unpleasant, are made to " work 
together for the good of those that love God/' 
Indeed, my brethren, if you have the spirit 
of knowledge, you will derive more profit from 
the defects of your neighbors than from their 
virtues. It may be, likewise, asserted that 
your enemies contribute more efficaciously to 
your eternal salvation than your friends. From 
your enemies you are apt to learn many salutary 
but unpalatable truths concerning yourself which 
your friends are chary of teaching you. Contact 
with your enemies will at least serve to test the 
weight and solidity of your virtue. How many 
soldiers there have been, who, in time of peace, 
fancied themselves brave as lions, and who dis- 
covered they were really cowards, only when 
confronted with danger: and how many good 
souls have deemed themselves heroes of humility 
and meekness whilst every one was flattering 
them, and awoke to the consciousness that their 
virtue was false and hollow, only when contradic- 



ON FORGIVING INJURIES. 



173 



tion came to prove them ? It is the day of 
battle which discerns bravery from cowardice ; 
and, my brethren, these little every day encoun- 
ters with our fellow men are our spiritual battles. 
If we can stand together, compact and united in 
spite of the efforts of Satan to separate us, 
then we are Christians indeed ; otherwise our 
Christianity is but an idle name. Unity, breth- 
ren, unity is the first and chief note of the true 
church ; unity of mind and unity of heart ; unity 
of belief and unity of charity ; and as every 
dissent from our brethren in matters of faith 
is a heresy, so every quarrel or dissension 
among Christians is an incipient schism. We are 
obliged to surrender our private opinions when 
they conflict with the doctrine of Holy Church, 
and we are also obliged to vanquish every 
emotion of our heart which tends to disturb the 
harmony of Christian charity. O that this thought 
would sink deep into our souls! We should 
then find it impossible to give a lodgment 
within us to wild desires of revenge ; we should 
be true members of the innocent, spotless dove 
of Christ ; we should startle and fly away from 
noise and tumult. Then might be repeated 
regarding us the beautiful encomium pronounced 
upon the first disciples of Christ, that in all the 
vast multitude there lived but one heart and one 
soul. 

III. Another powerful motive to induce us to 
forgive, is the reflection that it is not our office 
to judge or punish our fellow men. There is 
One who judges justly; He before whose un- 
erring tribunal both he who offends and he who 
is offended shall one day appear to plead their 
cause. "Vengeance belongs to me, saith the 
Lord, I will repay." This is a prerogative which 



174 



ON FORGIVING INJURIES. 



is so intimately connected with His high sover- 
eignty, that God is rightly jealous of it ; He will 
not share it with another. And what can be 
more reasonable ? In every well-organized com- 
munity the distribution of justice is taken out of 
the hands of the individual members and re- 
served to the supreme authority; and any at- 
tempt on the part of private parties to redress 
their own wrongs, is considered as lawlessness de- 
serving of punishment. Such an attempt is a 
public insult offered to the Ruler, for it is equiv- 
alent to doubting either his power or his integ- 
rity. And shall we think, my brethren, that 
God is less provident than are the princes of this 
world ? Has He so poorly provided for His chil- 
dren, that we are forced to redress our own 
grievances? No ; leave "vengeance to me, saith 
the Lord, I will repay." If, then, my brethren, 
you have suffered an injury, put your cause into 
the hands of Him to whom all judgment belongs 
in heaven and on earth. There is no fear that 
the culprit shall escape : for God is a just and 
mighty judge* He cannot be deceived ; he can- 
not be bribed ; He cannot be overawed ; and 
His Infinite Power can inflict a weightier punish- 
ment than your weak arm or impotent tongue. 
But, unfortunately, few are willing to pursue this 
rational course. Against all the dictates of rea- 
son, you are eager to take the law into your own 
hands ; and need we wonder that before such a 
tribunal as yours, where you are at once judge, 
and plaintiff, and witness ; where your adversary 
is not allowed to say a word in his defence, where 
the only rule of procedure are your passions, and 
whims, and prejudices — need we wonder that 
your brother is invariably condemned? But the 
worst feature of the case is, that this judgment 



ON FORGIVING INJURIES. 1 75 



formed in an instant, born of a thousand passions 
that darken your Reason, is stubbornly clung to 
long after cooler thoughts have convinced you of 
its rashness. And what is the consequence of 
this way of acting? The consequence is that the 
kingdom of God upon earth, the . blessed 
Jerusalem, the Vision of Peace, is changed into a 
riotous Babylon. Instead of the harmony, the 
peace, the charity which Christ purchased for us 
by His Adorable Blood, we see nothing wherever 
we turn our eyes, but disunion, hatred and strife. 
We see even among Christians that every friend- 
ship ends sooner or later in open war. The 
closest ties of nature and grace are rent asunder. 
We see children of the same parents treating 
each other as strangers ; we see parents disown- 
ing their children, and children dishonoring their 
parents. Is this that reign of peace which the 
Prophets foretold, and for which the Patriarchs 
sighed ? 

Now, my brethren, since you are so fond of 
playing the part of judge, let us review some of 
your judgments. Let us calmly investigate the 
causes of your hatreds and quarrels. What do 
they spring from ? Very often from your own 
perverse disposition, without the shadow of a 
foundation in any one's behavior. How is it, for 
example, that you are continually falling out 
with persons with whom so "many other people 
contrive to get on exceedingly well? No doubt 
your ingenuity will invent some answer favorable 
to your self-love , but I think an uninterested ob- 
server would assign more satisfactory causes. 
May it not be that you are of a suspicious turn 
«of mind, ever on the alert lest people overreach 
you ; always imagining that your neighbors are 
conspiring against your honor, or your interests ; 



176 



ON FORGIVING INJURIES. 



apt to fancy that everything said or done by 
those about you is directed against yourself? If 
so, you need look no farther to find ample cause 
for numberless quarrels. Moreover your pride, 
my brethren, has without doubt involved you in 
a great many foolish broils. It may be that you 
are prone to think it due to your merit that peo- 
ple should be ever praising and flattering you. 
You may think that you deserve the first parts in 
everything going on ; that every one ought to 
conform to your way of thinking and acting ; and, 
naturally, you get very angry and complain 
loudly, if your friends are blind to your supposed 
excellencies, or fail to be convinced by your argu- 
ments, or refuse to submit to your caprices. Be- 
hold the true cause of one half of our quarrels. 
Again you may be instigated to hate your neigh- 
bors from sordid and selfish motives. Your 
neighbor may be more fortunate or more highly 
gifted than you. He stands in the way of your 
advancement in life. He overshadows you ; his 
glory eclipses yours : and since you cannot com- 
pete with him openly and manfully, you seek to 
undermine his reputation ; and if you can do 
nothing worse, you can gratify your self-love by 
envying and hating him. So it is, my brethren. 
We all profess that we love God, and yet we are 
prone to hate our brethren simply for those gifts 
of person or fortune* with which God has been 
pleased to endow them. 

There may be others whom you dislike merely 
because they are not of a like character with 
yourself. The fact that they are of a serious and 
you of a lively temperament, or that you are 
open-hearted whilst they are reserved, or the 
contrary, you judge to be a quite sufficient rea- 
son for preventing fellowship between you. And 



ON FORGIVING INJURIES. 



177 



this may be true ; because there is nothing super- 
natural in your friendships or your enmities, 
you are drawn to love from merely natural im- 
pulses and sympathies ; and what wonder is it 
that you should be led to hate from a similar 
consideration ? You do not consider the object 
either of your love or your hatred, as a child of 
your common Father, as a brother for whom 
Christ died, but simply as one whom you like or 
dislike on natural grounds. 

Go through the circle of your vices, brethren, 
and you will find that these, not your poor neigh- 
bors, are your true enemies. If you needs must 
be angry, be angry with your evil propensities 
which have brought so many misfortunes upon 
you. You complain of your fellow men, and put 
on the air of one aggrieved, when, if all were 
known, it is just as credible that it is your friends 
who have good reason to complain of you. They 
say — and I have no doubt with a great deal of 
truth — that they really despair of ever succeeding 
in pleasing you ; that your vanity is so excessive, 
they must keep constantly humoring you, as 
one would a wayward child; that your self-love 
is so extravagant, they are at a loss to find 
wherewith to feed it, that you are so peevish, so 
obstinate, so suspicious, so ill-tempered, it would 
sorely tax the patience of a saint to keep on 
good terms with you for an hour. You get 
offended with your friends for modestly advising 
you, with your parents for correcting you, with 
superiors for admonishing you. Now, my dear 
brethren, strike from the list of your so-called 
enemies, those whom your own perverse dis- 
position has made such, and see how few 
remain. 

But it cannot be denied, that some of your 
12 



178 ON FORGIVING INJURIES. 



grievances may be true and weighty. You have 
been grossly wronged, insulted, betrayed, abused, 
calumniated. Alas for human weakness ! such 
cases not unfrequently occur. What then, my 
brethren. Will you immediately rush to pro- 
nounce sentence against the offender ? Oh a 
judge must proceed more calmly. Have you 
sufficiently examined the whole case ? Have 
you taken into consideration all the circum- 
stances ? Are you sure that no blame attaches 
to yourself in the matter? Are you sure that 
rumor has not embellished and exaggerated the 
tale? Your alleged enemy, if you give him a 
chance to explain, may acknowledge his fault, and 
beg your pardon. He may, for instance, con- 
fess that he let fall that hasty phrase which has 
so galled your pride ; but when he thought of 
himself he was scarcely less mortified than you 
were. Or he will plead that he was beside him- 
self with anger. There will always be some 
extenuating circumstance, if you will but be 
charitable enough to listen and forgive. At any 
rate, it is clear that, blinded as we are by our pas- 
sions and prejudices, we are not fit judges in our 
own cause. Leave vengeance therefore to Him 
to whom it belongs ; He will repay. 

IV. A fourth motive for pardoning your 
enemies is that you may gain that peace of 
mind which is allotted to those only who are in 
harmony with God and men. Oh ! blessed are 
the peace-makers ; for they shall be called the 
children of God ! How our Lord Jesus loves 
the forgiving soul ! It is His own image and 
likeness, He loves to dwell therein ; and He 
reserves for it His choicest blessings. Our Sav- 
iour, as I said at the beginning of this discourse, 
is by office a Peace-maker. Discord and tumult 



ON FORGIVING INJURIES. 



He cannot abide ; and he forthwith forsakes a 
soul that begins to harbor thoughts of hate and 
rancor. Is there any one among you, my breth- 
ren, who has experienced the sweet emotions 
that fill the soul when it has forgiven a gross 
injury, or embraced an enemy, or prayed for a 
persecutor? Such a one has enjoyed a foretaste 
of the happiness of heaven ; for certainly, no 
more sacred joy, no fuller contentment can be 
found on earth. And thou, unfortunate soul, 
that art on ill terms with a fellow creature, tell 
us frankly, hast thou had one hour of sincere 
peace and happiness since that unlucky hour 
when thou didst close thy heart against thy 
brother ? Hast thou not discovered that resent- 
ment is a two-edged sword, far keener to wound 
thy own breast than to hurt thy enemy? Oh, 
brethren, if you once let hatred get an entrance 
into your heart you will find it a deadly viper, 
ever gnawing at your vitals, undermining your 
rest, and infecting all your pleasures. We 
have a striking instance of this recorded in the 
Book of Esther. Aman was rich and powerful, 
crowned with glory above all the princes of Per- 
sia. When he appeared in the market place or 
on the highways, every knee was bowed before 
him. Yet he was unhappy and had no rest. 
What was the reason ? Simply because there 
was one man, the Jew Mordochai, who bowed 
not the knee, nor honored him. But why should 
the haughtiness of one man trouble him who 
was worshipped by millions ? Because one little 
drop of hatred can embitter and poison an ocean 
of pleasure. If, then, you wish to regain your 
former peace and quiet, if you wish to rejoice as 
serenely as formerly, to pray as devoutly, ban- 
ish this demon from your heart, and make 



l8o ON FORGIVING INJURIES. 



room for the Prince of Peace and His Holy 
Spirit. 

V. But the final motive, one which appeals 
strongly to that very self-love which causes all 
this trouble, is the reflection that your eternal 
salvation depends upon your forgiving your 
enemies. " Forgive and you shall be forgiven," 
" but if you forgive not men, neither will your 
Heavenly Father forgive you." " Judgment 
without mercy to him that hath not done 
mercy." Go now and say that your brother's 
offence is too heinous ; that you cannot forgive 
him. Wretched soul ! your doom is sealed, you 
have pronounced the sentence of your own dam- 
nation. Oh ! what sordid folly, to exact the few 
paltry pence that your brother owes you, after 
you have, time and again, obtained the remission 
of such enormous debts from the generosity of 
your common Father ! How often you have 
knelt at your Heavenly Father's feet, and 
besought him to cancel debts which were infi- 
nitely beyond your power to pay ; and when 
he yielded to your importunities, did you not 
return to offend Him, probably before that day's 
sun had set ? Yet, it may very frequently be 
the case, that whilst you are flattering yourselves 
that you have received pardon from God, you 
have, in fact, but increased your guilt. When- 
ever Almighty God pardons you, he invariably 
attaches the condition that you too forgive from 
your heart; and if this condition is unfulfilled, 
the pardon is void. Oh, my brethren, oftentimes 
when we feel deeply aggrieved, we console our- 
selves with the thought that there is an Avenger 
above, who in His own good time, will redress 
our wrongs. But if we turn to consider what 
evils our own tongues and hands have wrought, 



ON FORGIVING INJURIES. 



1S1 



and how many there are who with equal justice 
are expecting vengeance for the wrongs we have 
inflicted, how quickly every desire for revenge 
melts away ; and instead of crying out, " Arise. 
O, Lord, and judge my cause/' we are far more 
disposed to exclaim : " I forgive them all, for- 
give them thou too, my God, and forgive me 
my trespasses, as I also forgive them that have 
trespassed against me." 

This, Beloved Christians, is what I earnestly 
exhort you to do this evening. Here before 
the altar of the Living God make a firm resolu- 
tion to come to terms with your adversaries 
betimes. Promise your Redeemer that hence- 
forth all ill-feelings between you and your breth- 
ren shall cease, and that you will s,eek the very 
earliest opportunity of extending a friendly hand 
to those with whom you have been at variance. 
If you have wronged any one, promise at any 
sacrifice to make ample amends* This is the 
noblest offering you can make to your God; 
indeed till this is made, no other offering can be 
acceptable. But if notwithstanding all your 
efforts, your brother stubbornly refuses to return 
love for love, let him see to it. You have dis- 
charged your conscience, and that peace which he 
will not accept will return to you, laden with the 
blessings of Heaven. And may the peace of 
God which surpasseth all understanding, keep 
your minds and hearts in Christ Jesus., to whom 
with the Father and the Holy Ghost be praise 
and glory forever more. Amen. 



THE SIXTH NICENE CANON AND THE 
PAPACY* 



To apxala sOt] uparelrto ra ev Alyvirnp nal Aij3vri ml TiEvraTToTiEL, 
(bare rbv AXetjavdpelag ettiokottov tc&vtuv rovruv lx uv T V V 
kt-ovoiav, ETretdy nal rib ev ry Twwt? ettcgkottg) tovto ovvrjOkg egtlv. 
1 Ofioiug 6e nal Kara 5 'Avrioxeiav teal ev ralg aXkacg k-apxtag ra 
Trpsa^Eia ocd^Ecdai ralg kKK?jjclatg.1i 

" THOSE holy and venerable Fathers of Nicsea," 
said St. Leo the Great,;}: "who, after having 
condemned to eternal infamy Arius and his blas- 
phemies, enacted a series of church canons 
destined to have force to the end of time are 
not dead ; for, both here at Rome and through- 
out the whole world they are judged to be still 
living in their immortal decrees." We feel this 
undying influence of the three hundred and 
eighteen bishops just as vividly to-day, though 
nearly sixteen centuries have passed since they 
met in Bithynia, as St. Leo did fourteen hundred 
years ago. Of the twenty canons which they 
promulgated, not one has grown entirely obso- 
lete ; for the majority of them relate to things of 
catholic and fundamental interest, and the few 
which were enacted for the protection of as- 
sailed individual rights or the extirpation of 



* This lecture is here reprinted as it appeared In the American 
Catholic Quarterly Review, April, 1880. 

t The rest of the canon deals with matters which do not here 
concern us. 

X Ep. 106, ad Anatolium. 

182 



SIXTH NICENE CANON AND THE PAPACY. 1 83 



local abuses have in them a germ of immor- 
tality. 

Canon VI. is an example of this latter class. 
The main object of the decree is to confirm the 
time-honored privileges of the See of Alexandria. 
From time immemorial the bishops of that city 
had claimed and exercised supreme jurisdiction 
over the churches of Egypt and the neighboring 
provinces. They received the appeals of the 
bishops from the sentence of their metropolitans; 
they convened and presided over provincial 
synods; they ordained and, if necessary, deposed 
bishops ; in a word they were, in the phraseology 
of a. later age, patriarchs. Whatever may have 
been the source of this authority, there is no 
record of its having been contested by any of the 
Egyptian bishops before Meletius of Lycopolis 
raised the standard of rebellion. 

This Meletius, as we learn from Socrates,* hav- 
ing been degraded by St. Peter of Alexandria in 
consequence of many heavy charges, the most 
grievous of which was that during the persecution 
he had denied the faith and sacrificed, would not 
submit to the sentence of his superior; and not 
content with renouncing all allegiance to the 
Alexandrian See, he arrogated an equal right 
with the patriarch to ordain bishops and convene 
synods throughout Egypt. By attaching to his 
cause all the disaffected elements through the 
country, he sowed religious dissension in every 
parish, and soon was leader of a numerous and 
devoted faction, w T hich obtained quite a formi- 
dable accession of strength by coalition with the 
partisans of Arius. Indeed, the desire of putting 
an end to the Meletian schism was one of the 



* lib. i., c. 6. 



1 84 SIXTH NICENE CANON AND THE PAPACY. 



chief motives which impelled Constantine, " with 
the advice of the clergy," to convoke the Nicene 
Council. 

The great synod decreed "that the ancient 
order of things in Egypt, Libya, and Pentapolis 
must be maintained, to wit, that the Bishop of 
Alexandria should have authority over all these 
provinces." And lest similar disorders might 
arise in Antioch or elsewhere, the Council enacted 
furthermore " that all the churches should keep 
their ancient standing." 

The decree thus far is perfectly clear and rea- 
sonable; but it is not, to use St. Leo's term, 
biatuv'tfav. Its importance has not survived the 
ravages of time. Many an age has rolled by since 
those brilliant luminaries of ancient Christen- 
dom — Alexandria, Antioch, Heraclea, Caesarea, 
Ephesus — were extinguished. They were un- 
doubtedly grand and princely in the day of their 
strength, but their greatness was of men and 
shared the inevitable fate of human things. Of 
what importance, save to the antiquary, are now 
those old Patriarchates with their accessories of 
high prerogatives, august state, and far-stretching 
boundaries? Were it permitted to those ancient 
princes of the Church to revisit these mortal 
scenes, their self-esteem would probably be less 
mortified by finding that every vestige of their 
patriarchdoms has been swept away, than by 
perceiving how wonderfully well the Church of 
Christ gets along without them. And upon 
turning their eyes Romeward and beholding the 
" Bishop of Old Rome" seated upon the Rock 
of Peter as firmly and serenely as ever, it is 
possible they might recall St. Leo's prophetic 
words : " A Church that is built upon any 
other foundation than that Rock which the 



SIXTH NICENE CANON AND THE PAPACY. 1 85 



Lord hath laid shall sooner or later come to 
grief." * 

This canon, therefore, owes its perennial inter- 
est to its incidentally alluding to the Roman 
Pontiff ; for any scrap of ancient parchment 
upon which his name has been written cannot 
fail to interest Christians so long as the Vicar of 
Christ shall have friends or enemies. The im- 
portance of the document before us is greatly 
enhanced by the fact that it was the very first 
utterance by the Universal Church on the subject 
of the prerogatives of the Bishop of Rome. The 
Nicene Synod was the first of the Ecumenical 
councils, and was, consequently, the first occasion 
which offered itself to the Catholic Church of 
speaking in a corporate and official manner. 
Hence the historian and the controversialist turn 
eagerly to learn what the first of councils had to 
say about the chief of bishops. 

Now if we sincerely desire to know what the 
Council really said, we must first of all discard 
translations and comments, and allow the canon 
to speak for itself. The endless controversies to 
which our canon has given rise would, in great 
part at least, have been avoided if this course 
had been pursued. Indeed, one of the main 
objects of this paper is to convince theological 
students, by an apt illustration, how necessary it 
is to study ecclesiastical documents in their 
authentic source and original dress of language. 
There is an impression abroad that in this day of 
elaborate translations there no longer exists a 
necessity for submitting to the drudgery of 
acquiring dead languages and poring over 



*Nec praeter ill am petram quam Dominus in fundamento 
posuit, stabilis erit ulla constructio. Ep. 104. 



1 86 SIXTH NICENE CANON AND THE PAPACY. 



barbarous glossaries, and very many prefer the 
more facile method of transcribing the assertions 
of their predecessors to the laborious task of 
hewing their own inferences out of the original 
text. Now a translation is necessarily a poor 
substitute for the original ; for if it were faithful 
and perfect in other respects, it must, like a false 
diamond, be lacking in weight and lustre.* Be- 
sides, whoever quotes from a translation quotes 
at second-hand, for a translation is nothing but 
the translator's expressed opinion of the sense of 
his text; and, in consequence, is essentially an 
inference. And then, no matter how adequately 
the translator may have, himself, seized the 
meaning of his text, there will still remain room 
for doubt whether the words he has selected 
adequately embody that meaning. But what as- 
surance have we that the version we are to rely 
upon is faithful? Will the fact of its being 
generally received as such vouch for it? Cer- 
tainly not. An error, be it ever so common, is 
an error still : and an erroneous translation is all 
the more dangerous for having obtained universal 
currency, because one is the less inclined to sus- 
pect it. 

Now applying these remarks to the subject we 
have taken in hand, let us put the question to 
prominent writers : What said the Council of 
Nicaea regarding the Roman Pontiff? 1st. The 
Protestant historians and controversialists, with a 
few honorable exceptions, will reply that whereas 



* What a world of wisdom is condensed into that little phrase 
of St. Jerome's, Hebraica Veritas (the Hebrew Text). And if it 
be permitted to look at the phrase from a different point of view, 
how much better it would be if we, spiritual children of Abraham, 
were as tenacious of the original Veritas as were the carnal seed 
of the Patriarch. 



SIXTH NICENE CANON AND THE PAPACY. 1 87 



the Bishop of Rome, from being a simple bishop, 
like any other, had succeeded, before the date of 
the Council, in imposing his authority upon the 
bishops in his vicinity, the Council thought it 
proper to permit him to retain his usurped do- 
minion ; a course which they are free to deplore, 
since it encouraged the " ambitious Pontiff " to 
persevere in his fixed design of enthralling the 
Christian world. Hear Calvin on the subject : 

" In regard to the antiquity of the primacy of 
the Roman See, there is nothing in favor of its 
establishment more ancient than the decree of 
the Council of Nice, by which the first place 
among the Patriarchs is assigned to the Bishop of 
Rome, and he is enjoined to take care of the 
suburban churches. While the Council, in divid- 
ing between him and the other Patriarchs, assigns 
the proper limits of each, it certainly does not 
appoint him head of all, but only one of the 
chief." * 

2d. Now turn to those Catholic writers of the 
Darras and Rohrbacher stamp, who seem to think 



* Inst, b. iv., c. 7, Edinburgh version. Dr. Alzog (vol. i., p. 
664, Cincinnati edition) must have been temporarily laboring 
under Calvinistic influence, when he informed his astonished 
readers that the "precedence of rank and authority possessed by 
Rome was confirmed by the Council of Nice (Canon VI.) ! " 
Not only is this assertion historically false, but it was resented 
centuries ago by the Roman Pontiffs. "The Nicene Synod," said 
Bonifacius I., " did not dare make any enactment regarding the 
Bishop of Rome ; well aware that no act of man could add glory 
to him who had received the fulness of power from the mouth of 
the Lord." "Adeo ut non aliquid super eum ausa sit constituere, 
cum videret nihil supra meritum suum posse conferri ; omnia 
denique huic noverat Domini sermone concessa." Ep. ad 
Episcopos Thessaliae. Compare Nicolaus I. ad Michaelem. 
" Si instituta Nicaenas Synodi diligenter inspiciantur, invenietur 
profecto quia Romanas Ecclesias nullum eadem Synodus contulit 
incrementum : sed potius ex ejus forma quod Alexandrian Ecclesiae 
tribueret particulariter, sumpsit exemplum." 



1 88 SIXTH NICENE CANON AND THE PAPACY. 



that the office of the historian is to copy bodily 
the assertions of his predecessors. According to 
these slashing authors, the Synod declared, 
totidem i f erbis, that " the primacy has always re- 
sided in the Church of Rome (Canon of the 
Council of Nice). Let the ancient custom, then, 
be vigorously maintained .... for so the 
Roman Bishop orders" * 

To tell the truth, I have less sympathy with 
the second class of unscrupulous writers than 
with the first. Protestant writers, when they un- 
dertake to combat the Papacy, are struggling 
" with the sun in their eyes." Their position is 
obviously disadvantageous and paradoxical, and 
it is not to be marvelled at if they should grow 
desperate. But a Catholic writer, who is full cer- 
tain that Truth and Catholicism are synonyms, 
ought to make every endeavor to find out the 
truth, and when he has found it to present 
it to his readers unvarnished ; for every 
victory gained by our adversaries over the indo- 
lent stragglers from our ranks is accounted as a 
triumph over our sacred cause. 

II. Now let us approach this famous docu- 
ment, and translate it as we should a passage 
from Thucydides : 

" Let the ancient usage throughout Egypt, 
Libya and Pentapolis be strictly adhered to, so 
that the Bishop of Alexandria shall have jurisdic- 
tion over all these ; since this is also the custom 
of the Bishop of Rome. In like manner, as re- 
gards Antioch and the other provinces, let each 
church retain its special privileges." 

Confining our attention to the clause iireify . . . 



* Darras, vol. i., p. 387. Compare Rohrbacher (livre xxxi.). 



SIXTH NICENE CANON AND THE PAPACY. 1 89 



tovto cvvrjdeg eotiv, let us at the outset assure ourselves 
that our translation faithfully represents the 
original. The term owqOqg, according to Hedericus, 
denotes consuetus, familiaris, and is translated by 
Liddell and Scott, habitual, customary. The 
phrase avvqdeg tlvl eotiv is equivalent to the well- 
known Latin expression familiare or consuetum 
est mihi : it is my custom. It cannot be rendered, 
// is the custom of others regarding me. Hence 
Hefele's rendering, "There is a similar custom 
for the Roman Bishop," is evidently incorrect. 
Da auch fur den romischen Bischof ein gleiches 
Verhaltniss besteht, -Conciliengeschichte, vol. i., 
p. 389, new edition. 

In fact, Hefele was influenced by the old ver- 
sion of Dionysius the Less, who has rendered the 
clause thus : Quia et Urbis Romce Episcopo parilis 
mos est. This is unsatisfactory ; for there is no 
equivalent for parilis in the Greek text, and there 
is no equivalent in the Dionysian version for the 
Greek tovto. The earliest Latin version — that 
which was read in the Council of Chalcedon — is 
more to the point : Quoniam et Romano Episcopo 
hcec est consuetudo ; which coincides with our own. 
Protestant writers have also rendered the text as 
we have done, though naturally they strive after- 
wards to blunt the edge of it. Thus Sheppherd * 
translates it : Since this is also the Roman Bishop's 
custo7n. Neander : f Since this is the custom also 
with the Roman Bishop. Schaff : % Since this also 
is customary with the Bishop of Rome. We are 
justified, then, in assuming that our translation is 



* History of the Church of Rome, p. 63. It is about the only 
grain of truth I have discovered in his violent diatribe, 
t Church History, vol. ii., p. 162. 
% History of the Christian Church, vol. ii., p. 275. 



I90 SIXTH NICENE CANON AND THE PAPACY. 



a faithful reproduction of the text ; and may 
safely make it the basis of our further remarks. 

III. After having determined with the greatest 
possible precision what the Council said about 
the Roman Pontiff, our next step is to investi- 
gate the meaning, the scope and bearing, of the 
words of the canon. " Let the ancient usage 
throughout Egypt, etc., be adhered to, so that 
the Alexandrian Bishop shall rule these prov- 
inces ; because this is also the Roman Bishop's 
custom!' Now it is plain that Bonifacius and 
Nicolaus, as quoted above, were quite correct in 
affirming that the Synod made no enactment of 
any kind in regard to the Roman Pontiff. This 
canon neither grants new privileges to the Apos- 
tolic See, nor confirms any existing ones. For 
some reason or other, the Council did not think 
it necessary to legislate upon the Bishop of 
Rome. It strengthened the hands of the Pa- 
triarchs of Alexandria and Antioch, and of the 
Exarchs of Pontus, Asia, and Thrace. In Canon 
VII. it conceded a Patriarchate of Honor to the 
Bishop of the Holy City ; but it did not DARE 
exercise, in any way, a legislative authority over 
the city of St. Peter. 

Hence, Calvin's rhetoric evaporates like dew 
before the sun. The Council does not u divide 
between the Roman Pontiff and the other Pa- 
triarchs," but abduces the authority of the former 
as a reason for admitting the claims of the latter, 
But whence did Calvin derive his information 
about those "suburban churches" which the 
Pope was " enjoined to take care of?" There is 
no trace of this in the canon. The wily heresi- 
arch knew well enough that he was not quoting 
" the decree of the Council of Nice," but Rufin- 
us's corruption of that decree. 



SIXTH NICENE CANON AND THE PAPACY, igi 



Rufinus wrote a History of the Church in con- 
tinuation of the immortal work of Eusebius, and 
inserted in it a Latin translation of the Nicene 
Canons. But his character of rhetorician did not 
permit him to give the decrees to his readers in 
the plain, unambitious style of the good Fathers 
of the Council. He was fain to embellish them 
and give them a high-sounding, antithetical form. 
The result of his lucubration upon our canon 
is the following sententious effusion : " Et ut 
apud Alexandriam, et in Urbe Roma vetusta 
consuetudo servetur, ut vel ille Egypti, vel 
hie Suburbicarum Ecclesiarum sollicitudinem 
gerat." * 

Now this " translation " ought to be brushed 
aside as undeserving of notice, and it is pitiable 
to see how much time and pains have been 
wasted by eminent scholars upon the barren task 
of determining what Rufinus meant by his " sub- 
urban churches/' What did he mean by his 
whole translation? Did he understand it him- 
self? As every one knows, Rufinus was the 
prince of bunglers. He was notoriously ignorant, 
and just as rash and stubborn as he was unskilful. 
His knowledge of the Greek was scanty, having 
been picked up without system or teacher. As 
for his Latin, the above specimen convinces us 
that he richly deserved St. Jerome's contempt- 



* Hist. EccL, lib. i., c. 6. For the benefit of those readers who 
may find it an arduous task to follow our sublime author through 
the upper air, I shall attempt a translation, though in the process 
much of the Rufinian froth must go to waste. The Synod de- 
crees also (the rhetorician expects his readers to supply this) 
" that as well at Alexandria as in the city of Rome the ancient 
custom be preserved, that either the former (probably he means 
the Bishop of Alexandria) shall bear the solicitude of Egypt, or 
the latter (most likely the Pope) of the suburban churches." 



I92 SIXTH NICENE CANON AND THE PAPACY. 



uous criticisms.* It must be remembered, more- 
over, that shortly before writing his history he 
had been excommunicated for heresy by Pope 
Anastasius. Hence, we cannot expect to be as- 
sisted by Rufinus in our investigation of this sub- 
ject. Let us return to the text. 

The kernel of the difficulty is the demonstrative 
tovto, this. " This is the custom of the Roman 
Bishop." What does this refer to? " Let the 
Bishop of Alexandria retain his ancient sway 
over these three provinces, for this is also the 
Roman Bishop's custom." According to Bellar- 
mine and others, tovto refers to the Patriarchate of 
Alexandria, and is to be expounded thus: " Let 
the Bishop of Alexandria continue to govern 
these provinces, because this is also the Roman 
Pontiff's custom ; that is, because the Roman 
Pontiff, prior to any synodical enactment, has re- 
peatedly recognized the Alexandrian Bishop's au- 
thority over this tract of country." f 

This exposition is unpalatable to the adversa- 
ries of Roman supremacy; hence they offer us a 
different interpretation. They make tovto refer to 
patriarchates in general and expound the sen- 
tence as follows : " Let Alexandria have jurisdic- 
tion over these provinces, because the Roman 



* The saint has exhausted his copious vocabulary of vitupera- 
tion upon his unfortunate adversary. He compliments his style 
as slovenly, barbarous, unintelligible, solecistic. "Such is thy 
skill in the Greek and the Latin, that when thou speakest in 
Greek the Greeks take thee for a Latin, and when thou speakest 
Latin, the Latins take thee for a Greek." Apologia adv. Rufinum. 

t Vera expositio est, Alexandrinum debere gubernare illas pro- 
vincias, quia Romanus Episcopus ita consuevit ; idest, quia Ro- 
manus Episcopus ante omnem Conciliorum definitionem consue- 
vit permittere Episcopo Alexandrino regimen Egypti, Libyae et 
Pentapolis : sive consuevit per Alexandrinum Episcopum illas 
provincias gubernare. Bellarmine De Rom. Pont., lib. ii., c. xiii. 
He says there is no other plausible interpretation. 



SIXTH NICENE CANON AND THE PAPACY. 1 93 



Bishop has also a Patriarchate. " " It illustrates 
the sort of power by referring to a similar power 
exercised by the Roman prelate in his province. " * 

IV. Although this second exposition might 
strike the reader at first sight as being possibly 
correct, yet I trust I shall be able to prove that 
it is inadmissible ; and that Bellarmine's is the 
only unexceptionable interpretation. 

Let me, at the risk of being tedious, state, first 
of all, my understanding of the passage. The 
supremacy of the Bishop of Alexandria had been 
contested by the Meletian bishops. They had 
asked him, if not in words at least in facts, upon 
what warrant he based his claim to rule over and 
depose his fellow-bishops. If he had a title let 
him produce it. Now the Alexandrian prelate 
had no written document of any kind to produce. 
The Council of Nicaea, therefore, came to his 
assistance, by decreeing that the Patriarch's f 
authority must be respected, and that for two 
reasons: 1st, because it was apxaia immemorial 
aboriginal ; and 2d, because it was sanctioned by 
constant recognition on the part of the Roman 
Pontiff. Two very good reasons. 

1st. The first argument in favor of this inter- 
pretation is drawn from the grammatical struc- 



*Sheppherd ubi supra. " Since this also is customary with the 
Bishop of Rome (that is, not in Egypt, but with reference to his 
own diocese). " This is Schaff's clumsy paraphrase of the 
clause. 

Many Catholic writers" 4 of eminence have interpreted the 
canon in this sense, but for the most part, they were interpreting, 
not the text, but the Dionysian version ; and Dionysius was, no 
doubt, biased by the Przsca, which had adopted the gloss of Rufi- 
nus. The Prisca may be found in the Ballerini edition of St. 
Leo's works, vol. iii., p. 498. 

t The word Patriarch is of later origin, but must serve in 
default of an equivalent. 
13 



194 SIXTH NICENE CANON AND THE PAPACY. 



ture of the text, (a) Take the pronoun tovto and 
see what it obviously refers to. Surely to this 
subject in hand, to wit, the ancient privileges 
and boundaries of the Alexandrian Patriarchate. 
It seems imposible, without quibbling, to refer 
the tovto to anything else. The only objection 
which can be urged against this is the mi, also. 
What is the use of the mi in this interpretation ? 
This objection is readily answered. The mi intro- 
duces a new and stronger reason why the 
Patriarch's authority should be respected. " Let 
the custom prevail, not only because it is ancient, 
but especially because it has Roman usage in 
its favor:" or, " Since even the Roman Bishop 
constantly recognizes it." (b) The word <tw>/%, 
customary, is intelligible in our interpretation, 
but in the alternative it becomes absurd. " It is 
customary with the Bishop of Rome to recognize 
the Bishop of Alexandria as Patriarch," is clear 
and sensible; but, "It is customary with the 
Bishop of Rome to be a Patriarch," is devoid of 
sense. 

2d. A second argument in support of our 
interpretation is elicited by considering the 
logical sequence of the passage. " This is the 
Roman Bishop's custom." is the Council's reason 
for supporting the Alexandrian claims. If it is 
a reason, we must reverentially presume that it is 
a valid one. The ancient fabric of the Patriar- 
chate was tottering ; the Nicene Fathers prop it 
up with this clause, which, therefore, contains a 
reason strong enough to sustain a Patriarchate. 
Now imagine Meletius demanding wherefore 
Lycopolis should be subject to Alexandria? If 
the Council be made to answer : " Because Tus- 
culum is subject to Rome," would it not appear 
a "lame and impotent conclusion?" Egypt, 



SIXTH NICENE CANON AND THE PAPACY. I9S 



Libya, and Pentapolis must obey the Bishop of 
Alexandria; because this (not Egypt, etc., but 
Campania and the islands) is the Roman Pontiff's 
custom !* Besides, granting that Rome's posses- 
sing a Patriarchate were a valid reason why 
Alexandria also should have one, would it be a 
sufficient reason why the Alexandrian Patriar- 
chate should extend just so far and no further? 
If so, then the following ratiocination must be 
considered sound : " Let the Alexandrian Bishop 
have jurisdiction over three provinces, because 
the Bishop of Rome is also a patriarch. " Should 
any one rejoin that the reason why Alexandria 
happened to rule three provinces instead of two 
or four, was that this was the ancient custom, 
I answer that his reason is different from that of 
the Council, which tells us that " Alexandria 
shall rule these three because this is the Roman 
Bishop's custom. M 

Now take Bellarmine's view of the canon. 
" Why shall Meletius and all the other bishops of 
Egypt, Libya, and Pentapolis acknowledge the 
supremacy of the patriarch ?" Because the 
Bishop of Rome has time and again recognized 
the authority of the Alexandrian Bishop over 
these provinces. " Where are the documents to 
prove this ? " asks Meletius. " Documents are 
not necessary," says the canon, " custom has 
force of law. Has not the Bishop of Rome, ever 
since he sent Mark to found churches in Egypt, 
held the Bishop of Alexandria responsible for 
purity of faith and strict observance of discipline 



" * Since this also is customary with the Bishop of Rome [that 
is, not in Egypt, but with reference to his own diocese.] " — 
Schaff, quoted above. 



I96 SIXTH NICENE CANON AND THE PAPACY. 



in that part of the world?"** What could 
Meletius reply to this? If he and the Council 
admitted the Catholic doctrine of Papal suprem- 
acy, his mouth was closed. Here was a reason 
strong enough to sustain, not Alexandria merely, 
but, "in like manner, Antioch and the other 
great eparchies ; " their authority was sanctioned 
by the Vicar of Christ. But if we assume that 
the Bishop of Rome was, in the opinion of the 
ancients, a simple bishop, like any other, what 
weight would his recognition of Alexandrian 
claims then carry with it ? None at all. The 
Meletian would answer, " What care I for the 
favor or displeasure of a bishop a thousand miles 
away ? What right has the Roman to recognize 
any one's jurisdiction in Egypt? Antioch is 
nearer to me than Rome, and so are Carthage 
and Ephesus ; but the Bishops of Antioch, and 
of Carthage, and of Ephesus know very well 
they have no right to meddle with things in 
Egypt. After having thrown off the tyrannical 
yoke of an Egyptian, is it probable that I shall 
be swayed by the opinion of a Latin ? " 

3d. We are now led to the threshold of a third 
argument, which I shall forthwith proceed to de- 
velop. The Council was evidently desirous of 
establishing the Patriarchates on the firmest pos- 
sible foundation. Hitherto the Bishop of Alex- 
andria or of Antioch, 



* When Pentapolis was devastated by the Sabellian heresy, 
Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria, exercised his patriarchal author- 
ity in extinguishing the evil. He was in consequence accused 
at Rome by his enemies as having denied the divinity of Christ. 
He purged himself of the charge, and was commended by the 
Roman Pontiff for his zeal. This incident, preserved by Atha- 
nasius, goes to show that there was a constant flow of intercourse 
between the two Sees, and explains the custom alluded to in the 
canon. 



SIXTH NICENE CANON AND THE PAPACY. I97 



As one secure 
Sat on his throne, upheld by old repute, 
Consent, or custom. 

But " old repute " can uphold a throne so long 
as things go smoothly; yet if there be no 
" strength concealed " within, the throne will fall 
to the ground at the first touch of a sceptical 
hand. Now, knowing as we do, that, so far as 
divine right was concerned, the Bishop of Lyco- 
polis was the peer of the Bishop of Alexandria, 
upon what principle of ecclesiastical law could 
the latter base his claim to judge and depose the 
former? In other words, what was the original 
source of that patriarchal authority which the 
Alexandrian wielded? Every Catholic must 
answer that, whereas, per se, the bishops are 
mutually independent within their proper juris- 
diction, they, of divine right, have no other 
superior than the successor of St. Peter, and, in 
consequence, a bishop who shall claim any legiti- 
mate sort of precedence or authority over a fel- 
low-bishop, must of necessity found his preten- 
sion upon the expressed or tacit consent of the 
Roman Pontiff. In the Catholic system, then, 
"Alexandria, Antioch, and the other eparchies/' 
were exercising prerogatives which belonged, 
natively, to the chair of Peter, and we are forced 
to the conclusion that they and the council were 
as sensible of this as we are ourselves. There- 
fore, the clause in question can bear no other 
interpretation than this : " Alexandria and the 
other great Sees must retain their ancient sway 
because the Roman Pontiff wishes it." Under- 
stood in this sense the knei6ri places the archiepis- 
copal thrones on the firmest — and indeed the 
only firm — foundation. Why should we deem 



198 SIXTH NICENE CANON AND THE PAPACY. 



the Fathers of Nicaea either less " Roman " than 
ourselves, or less capable of comprehending their 
strongest argument in favor of Alexandria ? 
Suppose a parallel case to happen in our own 
day and country. Suppose that, ages ago, the 
Roman Pontiff had dispatched to these provinces 
a missionary with episcopal ordination and un- 
limited, unwritten jurisdiction. If in course of 
time the throne on which " as one secure he sat 
upheld by old repute " should be shaken by an 
unruly suffragan, what might we suppose would 
be the ruling of a plenary Council ? The Fathers 
would probably enact : That the authority of the 
Bishop of Baltimore must be respected ; that it 
was unnecessary to apply to Rome for a formal 
recognition of his primacy, since the custom of 
the Roman Pontiff, invariably to address himself 
to the churches in these provinces through his 
medium, was an ample justification of his claim. 

It may be objected that this argument would 
have no weight with Protestants. What of that ? 
Are we to abandon our old standard of interpre- 
tation, our " Catholic analogy," because, for- 
sooth, we cannot induce " those who are with- 
out " to view things from our standpoint? Let 
our adversaries prove that our interpretation is 
false ; for the burden of proof is upon them. 

4th. But we have a fourth argument, of which 
every historian must feel the force. I refer to 
the establishment of the Patriarchate of Constan- 
tinople. In my last argument, I took for granted 
that the only foundation upon which a Patriar- 
chate could legitimaly rest was the consent of 
the Roman Pontiff. This assertion we are able 
historically to make good, by observing a Patri- 
archate in process of crystallization. 

Shortly after the date of the Nicene Council, the 



SIXTH NICENE CANON AND THE PAPACY. 1 99 



little town of Byzantium was by the genius of 
Constantine metamorphosed into Constantinople, 
the New Rome and Mistress of the East. With 
the magnitude of the city grew the importance 
and pretensions of its bishop, who now became 
the emperor's ecclesiastical adviser, the arbiter of 
bishops, the chief organizer of missionary expe- 
ditions, and the president of politico-ecclesiasti- 
cal assemblies. A dignitary of such importance 
seemed to the emperor, the senate, the metro- 
politan clergy, and the Eastern bishops-,* to be 
deserving of the highest honor. Hence the sec- 
ond General Council (A. D. 381), in its third 
Canon, decreed that " the Bishop of Constanti- 
nople should rank in the Church next after the 
Bishop of Rome/' giving as its reason that Con- 
stantinople was a new Rome.f 

But this canon never obtained the pepmuGiQ nai 
cvyKadeoig — the confirmation and consent— of the 
Roman Bishop, without which even the Byzan- 
tine was conscious that his authority was founded 
on the sand. Hence, in the fourth Council, tak- 
ing advantage, as St. Leo has remarked, of the 
prostrate position of the churches of Alexandria 
and Antioch,^; the Bishop of New Rome, Ana- 
tolius, made a desperate attempt to gain a more 



* " As to the new honors conferred upon my see by the late 
Council, let me assure your Holiness that I am not to blame in 
this matter. A man am I fond of retirement and quiet ; from my 
earliest days content with a lowly station. But my reverend 
clergy are very eager for the advancement of their Church, and 
the prelates of the vicinty encourage and abet them." Anatolius 
to Pope Leo. Opp. S. Leonis, Ep. 132. 

t Toi/ (izvtol KovaravTLVOVTrb?i,so)g sttlokottov lx uv T & Kpzafcla 
rfjg ripifjq [xera rov rrjg 'Vtijuqg tirLUtwirov^ dia to tlvat avrr/v vkav 

X Dioscorus of Alexandria had been deposed, and Maximus of 
Antioch was a creature of Anatolius. 



200 SIXTH NICENE CANON AND THE PAPACY. 



solid footing for his Patriarchate. Pope Leo, in 
anticipation of this, had strictly enjoined his 
legates " not to suffer the Nicene Decree to be 
violated. " The Fathers of the Council, however, 
— some no doubt for political motives., others be- 
cause they were given to understand that Leo 
was not so much opposed to the innovation as 
his legates would have them believe, — granted 
the Byzantine the desire of his heart. But now 
the more serious task remained of inducing the 
Pope to ratify the decision of the Council. The 
Council wrote to Leo, so did the Emperor* so 
did the Patriarch ; all begging the same favor, 
and all acknowledging that the validity of the 
act depended on his confirmation. " We make 
known to you furthermore," wrote the Fathers of 
Chalcedon to the successor of St. Peter, " that 
we have made still another enactment which we 
have deemed necessary for the maintenance of 
good order and discipline, and we are persuaded 
that your Holiness will approve and confirm our 
decree. . . . We are confident )'ou will shed 
upon the Church of Constantinople a ray of that 
Apostolic splendor which you possess, for you 
have ever cherished this church, and you are not 
at all niggardly in imparting your riches to your 
children. . . . Vouchsafe then, most Holy and 
most Blessed Father, to accept what we have 
done in your name, and in a friendly spirit [6c 
OLKSia T£ Kai $Lka). For your legates have made a 
violent stand against it, desiring, no doubt, that 
this good deed should proceed, in the first in- 
stance, from your provident hand. But we, 
wishing to gratify the pious Christian emperors, 
and the illustrious Senate, and the capital of the 
empire, have judged that an Ecumenical Council 
was the fittest occasion for effecting this measure. 



SIXTH NICENE CANON AND THE PAPACY. 2GI 



Hence we have made bold to confirm the privi- 
leges of the afore-mentioned city (d-appyoavreg 
€Kvp6ffajLiev) as if your Holiness had taken the in- 
itiative, for we know how tenderly you love your 
children, and we feel that in honoring the child 
we have honored its parent. . . . We have in- 
formed you of everything with a view of proving 
our sincerity, and of obtaining for our labors your 
confirmation and consent"* 

Anatolius writes to the same purpose: " The 
holy Synod and I have submitted this canon to 
your Holiness in order to obtain your assent and 
confirmation, which I beseech your Holiness not 
to withhold." f 

And in a later epistle he assures the Pope that 
" the whole efficacy and ratification of the decree 
had been reserved to the authority of his Holi- 
ness. " \ 

We have also two letters of the Emperor Mar- . 
cian to Pope Leo, in which he acknowledges that 
the Pope's sanction is absolutely necessary to the 
validity of the canon. 

" Since it has pleased the Synod to grant the 
Bishop of Constantinople the post of honor next 
after the Apostolic See, I pray your Holiness to 
give assent to this arrangement." § And a few 
months later he writes endeavoring, with evident 
anxiety, to hurry on the cautious Pontiff. 

" I am puzzled beyond measure to know 
wherefore your Holiness, although fully informed 
by the bishops assembled at Chalcedon of the 
proceedings of the Council, has not yet dis- 



'* Opp. S. Leonis, Ep. 98. 
t Ep. 101. 
I Ep. 132. 
§ Ep. 100. 



202 SIXTH NICENE CANON AND THE PAPACY. 



patched us that epistle which miist be read in 
every church, so as to reach the notice of alL This 
delay has afforded an opportunity to the ill dis- 
posed to suggest a doubt whether your Holiness 
would confirm the acts of the Synod. Deign, 
therefore, to send a letter which shall certify the 
churches and the faithful that the decrees of the 
Council have been confirmed by your Holiness. 
Very laudably, indeed, and with a constancy 
worthy of the Bishop of the Apostolic See, your 
Holiness has resisted the attempt which was 
made to disturb the ancient order of things as 
established by the canons. But you have, no 
doubt, been apprised of the active machinations 
of the enemies of the faith, against whom I have 
been unwilling to proceed because the Council's 
exposition of orthodox faith has not yet received 
your confirmation. I pray your Holiness, there- 
fore, to send us a decretal with all possible dis- 
patch, so that it may become manifest to all that 
you confirm the Synod of Chalcedon." 

St. Leo readily assented to the emperor's re- 
quest and ratified all the dogmatic decrees of the 
Council. But he and his successors resolutely 
condemned this surreptitious canon in favor of 
New Rome* In consequence the political Patri- 
archate of Constantinople lacked ecclesiastical 
confirmation ; and this 28th canon of Chalcedon 
was not admitted into the Greek synodical code 
until the Eastern Church had become thoroughly 
saturated with Byzantinism.f 

* Consensiones episcoporum. ... in irritum mittimus, et per 
auctoritatum beati-Petri apostoli generali prorsus definitione 
cassamus. — St. Leo to Pulcheria, Ep. 105. 

t There is grave reason to suspect that the Acts of Chalcedon 
have been tampered with by the schismatical Greeks. But since 
this cannot be fully demonstrated, there is no use of making the 
charge. Even as the documents stand, they furnish abundant 
evidence of the unquestioned supremacy of the Bishops of Rome. 



SIXTH NICENE CANON AND THE PAPACY. 203 



Bring this analogy of a Patriarchate in fieri to 
bear upon the subject under discussion, and my 
former argument returns in a new shape. The 
Nicene Council desired to confirm the Patriar- 
chate of Alexandria. Now the only way of ac- 
complishing this was to show that the Bishop of 
Rome had " shed a ray of apostolic splendor 
upon his favofed child." Therefore the clause, 
" Since this is the Roman Bishop's custom," 
must mean, " Since this is the Roman Bishop's 
will as expressed by custom." 

5th. Another powerful argument in support of 
our interpretation of this sixth Nicene canon, is 
that the ancient? saw in it a plain and formal ac- 
knowledgment by the Fathers of Nicaea of the 
primacy of the Apostolic See, Indeed, Pope St. 
Gelasius proclaims it an invictum et singular e ju- 
dicium. u By what process of reasoning can you 
persuade yourselves," he writes to the Eastern 
bishops, " that the rights of the other Sees will 
be respected, if due reverence be not paid to the 
supreme See of Blessed Peter, — that See which 
has ever been the support and bulwark of all sac- 
erdotal dignity, and to which the unique and irre- 
fragable testimony of the three hundred and 
eighteen Fathers acknowledges immemorial ven- 
eration." * Hence, if we believe Gelasius, the 
Roman Pontiff's name was made use of by the 
Nicene Fathers to serve as a support and bulwark 
for the privileges enjoyed by " Alexandria, An- 
tioch, and the other eparchies." The Emperors 



.* "Qua ratione vel consequentia aliis sedibus deferendum est, 
si primas Beati Petri sedi antiqua et vetusta reverentia non defer- 
tur, per quam omnium sacerdotum dignitus semper est robo'rata 
atque firmata, trecentorumque decern et octo Patrum invicto et 
singulari judicio vetustissimus judicatus est honor." — Apud 
Natal. Alexand. 



204 SIXTH NICENE CANON AND THE PAPACY. 

A 



Theodosius and Valentinian also give expression 
to this widespread sentiment in their celebrated 
edict on the subject of the primacy of the Apos- 
tolic See. The civil power, they argue, must 
recognize the Bishop of Rome as Head of the 
Church, ist, because he is the successor of St. 
Peter, the Chief of Bishops ; 2d, because of the 
dignity of his city ; and 3d, because his suprem- 
acy has been confirmed by the sacred council.* 
Now the " sacred council," so far as we know, 
had no other occasion of introducing the subject 
of Roman supremacy than this Alexandrian 
question, and to this sixth canon, therefore, as all 
admit, the Emperors were alluding. True, it 
may be objected that the Emperors' argument is 
based not upon the original text, but on the old 
Latin version, which contained the famous addi- 
tamentum: "Quod Ecclesia Romana semper 
habuit Primatum." (The Bishop of Rome has 
ever been Head of the Church.) f It seems 



* " Cum igitur sedis apostolicae primatum sancti Petri meritum, 
qui princeps est episcopalis coronas, et Romanae dignitas civitatis, 
sacrae etiam synodi firmarit auctontas," etc.— Opp. S. Leonis, 
Ballerini, ep. xi. 

t This variation is found in all the ante-Dionysian versions, as 
may be seen by consulting the Ballerini-Quesnel edition of St. 
Leo's works, vol. 3. Were this the proper place, it would be an 
instructive and amusing occupation to trace the process of cor- 
ruption which our canon underwent as it passed through the 
hands of the successive editors. The additamentum was, doubt- 
less, in the first instance, the title selected by the earliest Roman 
translator. Next, in the Antiquissima, the Quod was dropped. 
Then the following editors, thinking it necessary that each canon 
should have an appropriate title, and believing that the sixth had 
none, added the words : " De Pnmatu Ecclesiae Romanae." The 
editor of the Prisca, to make confusion worse confused, intro- 
duced the Rufinian jargon into the text, making the canon read 
thus : " De Primatu Ecclesiae Romanae vel aliarum civitatum 
Episcopis. Antiqui moris est ut urbis Romae episcopus habeat 
principatum, ut suburbicaria loca, et omnem provinciam suam, 
sollicitudine gubernet. Quae vero apud Aegyptum sunt, Alexan- 



SIXTH NICENE CANON AND THE PAPACY. 20$ 



quite probable that such was the case, for the 
edict emanated immediately from the Western 
Emperor, and at the suggestion of St. Leo. But 
we cannot suppose for a moment, that it was the 
Pope, or any of his clergy, who drew up the doc- 
ument, because the Roman Church would have 
vehemently denied that any synod did or could 
confirm its primacy. A score of years before, 
Bonifacius, in the epistle already quoted from, 
had expressed the views of the Apostolic See 
upon the attitude of the Nicene Council regard- 
ing the prerogatives of the Roman Pontiff. 
" Non aliquid super eum ausa est constituere." 
It follows, that the Latin version had passed the 
critical examination of the imperial lawyers, who 
would have been quick to detect an interpolation 
in the document, had there been one. But they 
took the additamentum for what it really was, — a 
title ; and their understanding of the clause, 
Episcopo Romano hcec est con'suetudo, was the same 
as the original translator's, the same as Pope 
Gelasius's, the same as Bellarmine's. It has, of 
course, been insinuated by hostile writers, though 
somewhat timorously, that the Latin variation 
was a deliberate interpolation by the Romans 



driae episcopus omnium habeat sollicitudinem," etc. It is impor- 
tant to remember that the only version received by, or emanating 
from, the Roman Church, was that read by the Pope's legate at 
Chalcedon. The others were executed without Roman co-opera- 
tion, by irresponsible parties in various parts of the West. These 
interpolations, therefore, can with no more semblance of justice 
be fathered upon the Roman Pontiffs, — as several Protestant 
writers have done, — than they can be upon the Nicene Council, 
as some Catholic authors have sought to do. To the Catholic 
who expresses indignation at Calvin's attempt to substitute 
Rufinus for the Council, and to the Protestant who is equally in- 
dignant at what I have termed the Darras-Rohrbacher substitu- 
tion of a Latin version for the original canon, I can heartily ex- 
claim, Plus ego ! 



206 SIXTH NICENE CANON AND THE PAPACY. 



with a view of extolling their chief ; nay, some 
have even laid the blame of it upon the " ambi- 
tious Popes " themselves. I do not propose to 
enter largely into the uninvestigable question of 
determining the intentions of people who lived 
and died ages ago. The Bishops of Rome have 
ever been distinguished for scrupulous attention ' 
to the genuineness of their documents. From 
the earliest ages, the fact of a text proceeding ex 
scriniis Ecclesice Romance, was the best witness to 
its accuracy. The version of our canon which 
was read by Paschasinus at Chalcedon, is a faith- 
ful reproduction of the original. The words 
Quod Romana, etc., cannot be called an interpo- 
lation, because they were not inter ; they were 
ante ; which is equivalent to saying, they were 
the title prefixed to the canon in the Roman 
Codex.* 

Now, therefore, the inference drawn from the. 
text by the Latin translator was, that it ac- 
knowledged the primacy of the Apostolic See. 
This is all that we can expect to find in this title, 
and it is all that we seek to find in it. I have no 
doubt that the author of the translation considered 
himself justified in giving the canons what he 
judged to be the most appropriate headings, for 
the original had none. And what more felicitous 
heading than this could a Latin have selected? 
It was pithy and contained the very soul of the 



* " Trecentorum decern et octo Patrum Canon sextus; Quod 
Ecclesia Romana semper habuit Primatum; Teneat autem et 
Aegyptus, ut Episcopus Alexandria omnium habeat potestatem, 
quoniam et Romano Episcopo haec est consuetudo. Similiter au- 
tem," etc., ap. Nat. Alex., Saec. iv., Prop., ii., Disser. xx. The 
canon proper begins manifestly with Teneat. Aegyptus probably 
represented to a Latin mind that large extent of territory which 
the Orientals divided into Egypt proper, Libya and Cyrenaica. 



SIXTH N1CENE CANON AND THE PAPACY. 207 



decree. " Let Alexandria, Antioch, and the 
other great Sees retain their privileges, because 
this is the Roman Bishop's custom. " To a Latin, 
the particular privileges of the Eastern churches 
were a matter of slight moment. The only inter- 
esting feature of the canon to him, was that the 
Bishop of Rome's authority had been made the 
common basis and support of the various pre- 
rogatives of the individual churches. Is it not a 
strong confirmation of our own interpretation to 
know that it coincides with that of the contem- 
poraries of the Council ? 

Dr. Schaff contends that this " interpolation " 
was rejected by the Greeks at Chalcedon. The 
only foundation for this assertion is that in the 
acts of the IVth Council, it is stated that upon 
the legate's reading the Nicene Canon as it stood 
in his codex, Constantine, the Greek secretary, 
read the same canon without the interpolation 
from the codex preserved in Constantinople. 
This is a feeble basis to build such an argument 
upon. For, first, Baluzius, Ballerini, and Hefele 
contend that this repetition is not to be found in 
the manuscripts prior to Photius. But, secondly, 
if Constantine had read the canon again, for the 
grave purpose of denouncing a Roman forgery, or 
of resisting Roman encroachments, he would not 
have contented himself with a quiet re-reading of 
the canon. If, therefore, he read it at all, it must 
have been for the sake of preserving the verbal 
accuracy of the decree, which cannot but have 
suffered by the process of a double translation, 
from Greek into Latin, and from the Latin again 
into the Greek. Indeed this incident of the 
Council of Chalcedon does but strengthen our 
argument ; for we now may add that the Greeks 
themselves admitted that the canon of Nicaea 



208 SIXTH NICENE CANON AND THE PAPACY. 



acknowledged the supremacy of the Pope. The 
question then before the Fathers was .whether 
Constantinople should have a Patriarchate. The 
Pope's legate maintained that the Nicene Canon 
forbade any change to be made in the relative 
standing of the churches. The clergy of Con- 
stantinople adduced the Hid Canon of the Sec- 
ond Council, which conceded to their master the 
post of honor next after the Bishop of Rome. 
" After the debate," Dr. Schaff tells us, " the im- 
perial commissioners thus summed up the result : 
From the whole discussion, and from what has 
been brought forward on either side, we ac- 
knowledged that the primacy over all (irpb tolvtqv ra 
wporeia), and the most eminent rank {koXttjv k^aip^rov 
TLfirjv) are to continue with the Archbishop of old 
Rome ; but that also the Archbishop of New 
Rome should enjoy the same precedence of honor 
(ra irpeoQeia rqq Tiuqs)" I should be happy to see Dr. 
Schaff make good his point against Hefele, as it 
would add new strength to my statement that the 
ancients understood this sixth Nicene canon to 
be a clear acknowledgment of the primacy of the 
Apostolic See. 

V. These five arguments — drawn respectively 
from the grammatical structure of the sentence, 
from the logical sequence of ideas, from Catholic 
analogy, from comparison with the process of 
formation of the Byzantine Patriarchate, and from 
the authority of the ancients— seem to me an 
overwhelmingly abundant confirmation of our 
understanding of the canon before us. True, a 
very formidable array of mighty names can be 
marshalled against us ; but the number of these 
will be decimated by considering how few of the 
eminent authors who have interpreted the canon 
in a different sense from ours had consulted the 



SIXTH NICENE CANON AND THE PAPACY. 209 



original text. We are not inquiring in this paper 
whether our interpretation be the most obvious 
one on the basis of the Dionysian version. We 
started out with asserting the right of investigat- 
ing the document for ourselves, which surely, is 
the most direct method of ascertaining the truth. 
With Dionysius we are not concerned. His ver- 
sion may have represented to himself the idea 
which we have extracted from the Greek ; in fact, 
Bellarmine and Baronius have interpreted his 
translation as we have interpreted the original. 
But, as was stated at the outset, not every trans- 
lator who has seized the true sense of his text 
embodies that sense clearly in the words he 
selects. This has probably been the misfortune 
of Dionysius in the present instance. 

As an appendix to our discussion, I beg leave 
to suggest to those who still cling to the idea 
that in the clause, " Since this is also the Roman 
Bishop's custom," the Council meant, " Since it 
is also the Roman Bishop's custom to be a 
Patriarch/' that there is a grave difficulty in- 
herent in this interpretation. To be frank, I do 
not believe that, in the age of the Nicene Council, 
the Pope was a Patriarch. When was his pa- 
triarchate founded ? What were its boundaries? 
What special prerogatives did the Pope claim or 
exercise in virtue of this adventitious dignity? 
The chief office of the ancient patriarchs was to 
ordain, judge, and depose bishops and metropoli- 
tans, and to convoke and preside over synods. 
The Bishop of Alexandria had been, from time 
immemorial, every inch a patriarch throughout 
his vast domain. The Bishop of Antioch en- 
joyed a similar authority throughout the great 
diocese of. Oriens. Their jurisdiction was imme^ 
diate and ordinary, and there is no difficulty in 
14 



2IO SIXTH NICENE CANON AND THE PAPACY. 



defining its nature and the limits within which it 
was exercised. If, therefore, the Council had 
"illustrated the sort of power," which it accorded 
to the Bishop of Alexandria, " by referring to a 
similar power exercised by the "Bishop, of 
Antioch," then the term of comparison would be 
clearly intelligible ; because both were patriarchs, 
with pretty much the same sort of power and 
the same extent of territory. But who has ever 
defined satisfactorily the limits and nature of 
Rome's patriarchal sway? Protestant writers 
have circumscribed this " Roman Patriarchate/ ' 
some within the radius of a huudred miles, others 
within the confines of the urban vicariate.* 
Catholic writers are more generous, and make 
the " Patriarch of Rome " a donation of the entire 
Western World. But, on both sides, there is 
difficulty; for the Protestants have to explain 
how it is we find the Pope exercising great 
authority beyond the boundaries in which they 
have hemmed him whilst the Catholics have to 
explain how it is that the Roman Pontiffs are 
not found to have ordained Bishops in Milan, or 
presided over synods in Carthage. In both 
cases the patriarchal robes they have made for 
the Pope do not fit him ; the first is entirely too 
small, the second too large. And as neither 
party will abandon its unproved assumption, 
that the Pope was, in the technical sense of the 
word, a patriarch, the Protestants have to fall 
back upon the easy doctrine of Papal aggression, 
and the Catholic controversialists are obliged to 
contend that " the Pope had authority over the 
whole West, but did not exercise it equally in all 
places." Surely the Pope had authority over 



* Southern and Central Italy and the adjacent islands. 



SIXTH NICENE CANON AND THE PAPACY. 211 



East and West, as Head of the Church ; but 
when we ask in what particular part of the 
Church he exercised that authority, immediately, 
performing in person the routine work, it will 
not do to make distinctions between the having 
and the exercising of authority. The Egyptian 
Bishops at Chalcedon protested that " nothing 
could be done by a Bishop of their country with- 
out the consent of the Patriarch of Alexandria. ,, 
Can anything similar to this be said of the early 
Western Church ? Not by any means. The 
various provinces of Europe and Africa were 
governed by their bishops and metropolitans, 
and whenever the Pope stepped in it was as the 
successor of St. Peter, " to whom the care of the 
whole vineyard had been intrusted." The notion, 
then, that the .Bishops of Rome, Alexandria, and 
Antioch, like Jupiter and his two brothers, had 
divided the world among them, was not con- 
ceived at that early day, but was the offspring of 
schismatical brains in Constantinople. The 
Patriarchates did not enter into the original 
constitution of the Church, which existed before 
them, and has survived them. That interpreta- 
tion of our canon, therefore, which is adopted 
generally by Protestants and admitted by several 
Catholic writers, is founded in error. The 
Council cannot have illustrated the powers con- 
firmed to the Patriarch of Alexandria by refer- 
ring to a similar exercise of power by the 
" Roman Patriarch/' because this latter person- 
age had no existence. Whatever powers the 
Bishop of Rome exercised beyond the narrow 
boundaries of his little province — which certainly 
did not constitute a patriarchate — he exercised in 
virtue of his " primacy over all." It ought not 
to be overlooked, moreover, that the Popes 



212 SIXTH NICENE CANON AND THE PAPACY. 



intervened more frequently in the East than they 
did in the West, because in that turbulent quar- 
ter of the globe it more frequently happened 
that knots were to be cut worthy of the Vicar of 
Christ. But whenever the emergency called for 
Papal intervention, the Roman Pontiffs did not 
pause to consider in what patriarchate their 
authority was needed. A fuller elucidation of 
this point is foreign to our present purpose. 

I hope that my readers will not consider that 
my investigation of this subject has been exces- 
sively minute. Should they be inclined to think 
so, let them take up any of the heterodox histori- 
ans who have treated of Papal supremacy, and 
see how prominently this Nicene Canon figures 
in their pet theory of the gradual aggrandizement 
of the Bishop of Rome. To that theory it is 
essential to assume that at the epoch of the 
Council of Nicsea the authority of the Roman 
Pontiff was circumscribed by very narrow limits. 
Unless Protestants make good this assertion, no 
force of rhetoric can avail to establish their the- 
ory. 

Never mind, then, their voluminous rhetoric ; 
shake this one column and their oratorical edifice 
will tumble upon their heads. When the -Bishop 
of Rome first met the assembled Universal 
Church, was he considered a " Bishop like any 
other?" Was he a metropolitan " enjoined to 
take care of suburban churches ? " or a patriarch 
with " proper limits assigned " him by an unsus- 
pecting council? If I have been even moderately 
successful in my efforts, I have demonstrated 
that the Vicar of Christ at his first emerging from 
the gloomy atmosphere of the Catacombs into 
the free open sunlight, had already attained the 
full measure of his greatness. 



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